Exploring Freedom - The Political Side

After one week staying in Antakya a reliable estimation of the situation inside Syria is still as foggy as the week, the month, the year before. Only fact given is the dramatical situation of the refugees staying here in this tiny Southern Turkish province.

Haven‘t counted all those tipping points felt and red lines crossed. But they are indeed enough to devalue completely any form of prognosis close to that what we call reality on the ground. All we see are daily counted more than hundred victims under the civilians, sometimes the bodycount is triple as high if another mass killing is committed. Some say i‘s a question in between few weeks that the regime is finished, others guess it‘ll take some months, maybe more, depending on the next steps the global powerful decide.

Exactly the same global powerful fueling the conflict with their hesitating and calculating stance preferring an as-long-as-possible draw between both sides, the regimers and the revolutionaries.

The question why the play such a dirty game at the cost of tens of thousands lives might lead to different, nevertheless shocking possible answers:

One is that most of all Syria‘s neighbors, Israel and Iran, profit from an unstable battleground. Israel, to shift the perception away from it‘s own questionable policy especially in Palestine and Gaza and to renew automatically the necessarity to protect its‘ population and its‘ borders with more arms facing the threat of chaos in Syria as well as the threat of getting invaded by militarized Muslims. Iran, to keep up the own oppressive system which in the case of a successful revolution in Syria might get endangered by an encouraged Iranian population trying to get rid of the authoritarian hydra the third time in more than three decades.

Regarding the global players and bigger blocks the answer might get more bitter. Immediate help for one of both sides, be it Russia in the case of Assad or the United States in the case of some revolutionaries‘ factions, might lead to an early success of one side wasting the historical chance of studying and analyzing the uprising in all its‘ ugly consequences if pushed into the right direction, the stalemate. Studying to learn about the mechanisms and the nature of revolutions, analyzing to understand how to avoid a similar situation in their own countries if the people start an uprising. This kind of field test crowns the top of the divide-et-impera pyramid. The wanted war. Probably best sold to the public as a serious situation too complicated to intervene in a hurry.

Poor Syrians. Being both forgotten and abused by all those asked to help and support them against their ruthless ruling elites. The more their unbroken will to finish this uprising by overcoming the regime has to be honored.

Exploring Freedom - The Personal Side

Syria: The War Next To Your Door

Writing these lines while I'm located at Hatay province in Southern Turkey. Of Antakya is spreading on the surface that kind of busy normality you expect in an average city. But a closer look and also listening carefully on the streets uncovers the tensions between Sunnis and Alawis.

This afternoon I sat on a bank at the Orontes reflecting that the river runs on its' way down here through Hama's waterwheels when I realized a group of young Alawi Syrians playing with their smartphones. Classical adolescent behavior I thought in that moment. When they jumped up to cross the street direction old city two Sunni women at the sidewalk turned their look off them until they vanished in the traffic. The women's facial expression was speaking a clear language.

It's not open hostility you find here, more a consensus of live-and-let-live. But those small signs you can register tells you a lot about the poisoned atmosphere the regime and his ruthless policy is completely responsible for. Even natives confirmed in talks I had that those tensions are no longer hidden since a few months.

That was exactly one of my crucial questions I had to answer myself by investigating on close location as possible. How real are the chances that after the downfall of the Assad tyranny a together between both Muslim groups will become true? I guess that's also one of the questions the think tanks and officials of the global community are trying to figure out.

Without coloring the future outlook too dark we have to face the fact that those tensions are having to take serious, particularly the longer the regime is playing its' barbaric role. Each new massacre creates new incomprehension, new feelings of rage, in the worst case the poison of hate. Even the desire for revenge is understandable when you try to imagine the feelings of people who've lost their children, their beloved ones, their whole families. Speaking about those feelings is the first necessary step to overcome the risk of realizing them sometimes later. Making the experience of sharing those emotions with other people able to have a certain understanding for that makes it definitely easier to avoid common cruelties and to crackdown the vicious circle of violence.

The world's powerful have failed to prevent the Syrian people from the regime atrocities until now. As disillusioning this is, it's never to late to change a dead end path. In this case by building up trust and faith in a slowly but constantly together growing Syria after Assad. The least the world could do now.

Just Think About

Coming home after a long day at work.

Stuck in the traffic.

Angry about one of the colleagues' comments.

Train missed, an hour waiting in the cold.

Favorite bread sold out.

The list is pretty much longer and can be easily continued searching for explanations of the own bad mood, the crabiness.

Instead of take a closer look to the five mentioned luxury problems.

The day at work might have been a long one. At least you have work, probably not your dream job, but just think about how many of us in the meantime don't even have one. Even in the richer states and welfare nations the numbers of jobless and low-income earners are increasing. How many aren't even allowed to work, forced to do nothing, prevented from building an own existence.

So you're stuck in the traffic? With a company car or your own one? Even if you're on your way to work and back home with the public transport system, busses, trolley lines, it means you can travel safe from a to b. Before continuing to complain just think about those not having the possibility to travel safe and free, in between their countries of from one to another. For refugees fleeing from violence traffic can become in the worst case a lethal threat. More like for you in that situation.

Some work colleagues tend to scratch on your sovereignity, and a handful of them might get named sociopaths analyzing their intentions and their behavior. But is it really your reaction like that worth? Inhale, take a deep breath and just think about workers and employees in totalitarian systems. Not only that they might lose their job as a result of directed denunciation, they might also get tracked by the authorities, imprisoned, isolated from their loved ones. You definitely won't be in their situation, believe me.

You're luckily living in a country where trains arrive more or less hourly to manage the distance between your origin and your destination. That's not a reason to moan over the injustice of life dragging yourself down. Just think about all those not able to pay for a ticket. All those not living in the near of a railway station. All those forced to walk dozens of miles, daily, because they can't afford buying a car, even a bicycle.

To have a preferred fresh bread sort is conceded to everyone. Insisting upon an alltime disposability only if you are the bakery's owner. As a regular customer you have good chances that your baker shop reserves the object of your desire for you. Just think about those people standing for hours in front of nearly empty bakeries for some bread when suddenly a grenade caused by an air raid shells into the crowd.

You see, all of these complaints are for sure luxury problems when you live in those parts of our world where your existence is directly not endangered, not threatened.

Just think about.

Merry pre-Christmas time everyone.

The Ghost Of Chemical Warfare

It appears that the Syrian regime has unleashed its' last shabeeh. His soul consists of lethal chemical substances like Sarin and other ugly stuff, able to end the lives of tens of thousands in only a few seconds.

Since a long time that threat is known to the global representatives. So it wonders a bit that the raised forefinger telling 'hands off chemical WMD's' is put exactly now direction Damascus. Because instead of intimidating the regime it looks in the meantime as a gesture of desperation, of helplessness. Despite interpretating one or the other statement of U.S. spokesmen as a possible mobilization of ground troops to prevent the Assad faction of using those weapons.

Fact is that the regimers will not hesitate to start a chemical warfare against so-called terrorists if they see a way in it to regain lost ground in a battle they are inevitably loosing.

The world's powerful watched tea-zipping the increasing brutality of the regime's crackdown measures. They noticed gruesome massacres committed on civilians, women, children, ordering their PR officers to restate earlier given expressions of indignation, repacked until they degenerated to abstract empty phrases.

Acting in an adequate time was never a fortitude of the political class but in the case of Syria the slow motion management became in the meantime a disgusting taste of bitterness. Time to prepare really effectful measures was a lot. At the latest with the start of the Ramadan massacres in summer 2011 the global community should had engage itself into constructive politics being aware of the regime's tightening screws of mass murder and blind rage slaughter.

So it might not surprise when we'll have to witness similar images in the nearer future reminding us on the horrible footages of Sadam Hussein's chemical warfare against the population in Northern Iraq. Men, women and children, mouth and eyes teared wide open in their moment of death, covered in white dust ..

Alive Or Not? Guesswork And A Strange Feeling ..

The night of Dec 2, 2012.

Recapturing the puzzling news of the recent day. After such a long time struggling against the tyranny in Syria we all are cautious due to rumors.

It was never easy to confirm some tweets and posts filed under 'BREAKING' or stuff like that.

But this night is somehow exceptional.

All I'm writing now down expresses my own subjective views about the ongoings I've witnessed online the last three days. Therefore the drawn conclusions represent exclusively my personal point of view.

First of all there was the mysterious internet shutdown in whole Syria. Attempts of analysis tracked the regime as responsibles for that. Comprehensible, because the revolutionaries would have no interest in putting the whole country offline, especially when it comes to the meanwhile legendary Fridays when they upload evidence footages of protests taking place all over.

In the beginning of the internet shutdown we feared a regime strategy using chemical weapons against the Free Syrian Army and other freedom fighter groups in liberated areas as a last attempt to crackdown the revolution and to regain ground in an almost lost battle. Fortunately that didn't happen up to now, several usage of white phosphorus ammunition was reported but a major attack with lethal chemicals wasn't reported yet. Maybe the regimers realized that such an attack could also hit their own people; by examining the map the liberated areas are closely mixing up with regime held areas, especially in Damascus.

We can only speculate about what really happened in those more or less 60 hours of virtual darkness. But another event of this Saturday tracked our interest more than usual: despite heavy clashes between the Free Syrian Army and regime forces around the Damascus International Airport flights were cancelled. It seemed that from that moment on no one was able to leave the capital with the help of an airplane. Then an A320 from the Syrian Airlines, flight SYR441, was reported to start direction Moscow, destination Vnukovo, the smaller airport of the Russian capital.

Some unusual details about that flight drew our attention: the machine flew above average speed, a sign that only a few passengers or/and little cargo was on board. If it had been a Russian airplane it wouldn't had wonder me at all, years ago I flew with the Aeroflot from Germany to St Peterburg arriving approximately 20 minutes before the scheduled time. That had to do with the circumstance that the captain of the Tupolew switched on the auto pilot after reaching the ordered flight height heading straight towards the destination .. and .. that we were only six passengers on board.

Another interesting detail was the announcement that the closure of the Damascus International Airport will be compensated by opening the military airport of Tartous for civil airlines' arrivals and departures. Not that they tried to assure the public to do everything to renormalize the situation at the capital's airport. True or not, that message should prepare the public for a longer closure due to the ongoing clashes. Regarding that, flight SYR441 appears retrospectively even more suspicious.

Examining the route of the plane raised another question. Instead of flying via Eastern Turkey and the Black Sea across the Ukraine to Russia flight SYR441 took a route around Turkey over the Mediterranean, crossed Greece and Bulgaria before heading direction Moscow. Well, maybe they were instructed to follow that route by the international air space control agency. Maybe.

Then one of the Brotherhood party members announced during a pro-Morsi rally in Cairo that 'Bashar al-Assad is probably dead or has left Syria'. My first thoughts were like: c'mon, you don't need to use such kind of rumors to heaten up the protesting masses (it worked well what the footage on Al Jazeera proved). In the moment I wanted to reject that occurance I remembered Lakhdar Brahimi's last comments and estimations about Assad's actual situation and possible future. His undertone changed slightly but perceptable from trying to defend Bashar's status as representant of (at least a handful of) the Syrian people to a much more clearer rejection. Not that I'm fully trusting in politicians like him but something says me that this could have been a signal to a certain group of the regime's circle to drop down, to get rid of Assad.

In the language of the Chess game said: in a situation like the regime's top one the king had switched the position with the checkers to get sacrificed. We can only suggest who might become the replaced king in that game, probably it will take another time before he will be presented. But Bashar al-Assad is according to that theory off the board.

And to all appearances on board of that ominous flight SYR441. The last remaining question is now: in what condition he might have been on board? Speculation 1 - alive after being urged (I don't suppose convinced, mainly after his last public announcement some weeks ago) to leave Syria. Speculation 2 - in a wooden case. Maybe it came to a violent dispute after the lobby of those trying to save their own asses as far as possible with the hardliners' circle around Bashar. That would explain a possible successful coup d'etat during the well-planned internet shutdown. Certain things can only become realized when the lights are out.

Alive or not - the powerful friends of the Syrian regime will try to prevent all kind of exposed clearness around these possible ongoings if my assumptions become proven true. The reason for that is a) keeping the Syrians as long as possible in the dark to construct a new follow-up able to act for their interests and b) to avoid a sudden push for the revolution movement when the end of the Assad era becomes - from the regime's allies point of view - too early confirmed.

As previously mentioned, this summary bases upon combining observations of unconfirmed occurances (the only facts are the two and a half days' internet shutdown and the Syrian Airlines flight SYR441 from Damascus to Moscow) and personal estimations after monitoring twenty months the people's revolution in Assad's Syria, a jungle of rumors, myths and speculations.

So Long! (Not Farewell)

This post definitely belongs to those all but easy to write. But in my opinion it is very important to speak out certain things which are occupying me in the meantime. And to announce a decision I came to.

Those who know me - if we can use the verb under the given virtual circumstances, I will refer to it later - might confirm that I belong to the revolution‘s early birds. I remember precisely the first images I‘ve seen because at that time the security forces were only monitoring the protests without cracking down the demonstrations using that kind of increasing massive brutality we had to witness the last one and a half years. Yes, regarding the actual situation it sounds nearly unbelievable that Assad‘s army and their henchmen stood at the other corner of the street just watching the justified outrage of the civilians. The quarters were not bombed down to the ground while this unmistakable spark, the scent of hope for a real change, drifted through the air of Syria.

With an unbreakable optimism - and admittedly a remarkable naivety - guys like me began to engage for the good cause, the Syrian revolution. The dynamics of the ongoings at that time in whole MENA region euphorized me being convinced that now the time had begun to clean up the whole mess created out of nepotism, oppression, corruption and fear. I entered a terra incognita getting busy with the historical and socio-political background of a fascinating landstripe also known as Bilad al-Sham or in the newer days as Levante.

Reviewing my own notes I made at that time I found a very interesting quote a young Syrian mentioned at the first rally I visited (yes, visited; after that event I not only took, I became part of the protests, proofs for that can be found among others on YouTube):

,There is a special term for those being detained and arrested by the regime‘s intelligence services. Those people are behind the sun.‘

At that time Assad‘s army forces were already using live fire to disperse protesters injuring and killing several of them. Retroactively regarded it is far too easy to rely upon the earlier mentioned naivety putting all our experiences until nowadays into a stringent timeline.

The will for supporting the change is still the same.

Despite the slowly tightened screws of regime violence up to crimes against humanity.

Despite the lack of both interest and support for the Syrian revolution the global community of the powerful were and still are exercising.

Despite the proxy wars, conspiracy myths, divide-and-conquer games.

The resilience of the Syrian people is more than remarkable. After all the horrific sacrifices they have still the power to continue the protests, to stand up for their demands. But after those more than twenty months certain aspects figured out important to mention and I‘m not asking for each one‘s immediate understanding.

All of the following statements represent my personal attitude towards the actual situation with all respect for the victims and their families.

The threat of a hijacked revolution. As a result of the international community‘s inability to offer at least the needed help the freedom striving Syrians began to crave for all kind of support they could get. Objectively regarded a logical reaction but that opened the doors for some interest groups to enter the battle area in the name of the revolution without representing the common goals. The whole process works always in both directions. You are against something like the regime itself or the whole system it represents but you are also for something like regaining freedom and dignity in the case of Syria. For sure, if you are struggling against such powerful perverts you don‘t have the time to ask those accompanying you on the frontlines about their honest intentions. You‘re glad that they‘ll keep your back safe. But the longer the struggle now continues the core of the origin resistance has to ask itself if certain practical alliances are possibly more counterproductive than helpful.

Get united or die. The radicalism of these words shall not insult, in contrary. It should encourage all those still driven by other purposes than the common goals of the revolution. Honestly: to expect a closed row of ultra-disciplined 24/7 pro-revos who have eliminated their whole individuality is not only utopic but gives me also shivers regarding the common system after the regime‘s downfall. Different ethnical, religious, educational or social backgrounds, even different political views don‘t have to be abolished to maintain the discipline if the basic values like freedom, dignity and justice are drawing the red line around them. It is possible to act together as a collective. And it is crucial to find together under that roof despite all the differences provoking more or less the egos inside each one of us. Stop fighting each other out of jealousy or other lower instincts.

The jungle of myths and rumors in times of the digital age. Being globally connected implies the feeling of advanced control over worldwide ongoings. We are able to realize due to uploaded images, footages or eye-witness reports certain events before the traditional media could react. But is that what we realize also real? The art of manipulation has found in the web an amazing playground puzzling the viewers with sometimes cunning strategies. Those of the Syrians busy with uploading videos as body of evidence for regime crimes might know what I mean: instead of getting a closer look to verify the authenticity the hard-boiled spectators (and the pro-regime lobbyists) are pouring the whole spectre of doubts over the footages: fake, manipulated, not from the claimed time, not at the claimed place, photoshopped. Similar it behaves at the social media sector. Whole identities could be constructed, sold as authentic and therefore instrumentalize a whole target group for sinister purposes. A dirty little business in the meantime deterring those who basically tend to support but who are insecure due to the lack of confirmed information. To convince them of the honest intentions takes time. Especially if their origin trust once was shattered raising a labyrinth of doubts, leaving scars on the surface of perception. Never forget that this is Assad‘s Syria, able to create such a fog of confusion and incertainty.

The friend of my enemy‘s not automatically my enemy. And my enemy‘s not automatically my enemy‘s friend. The black-and-white perception of the uprising is only useful to explain the conflict situation those who never heard of it having only a short amount of time. Some of you might get an increasing blood pressure by reading my next lines having difficulties to imagine my demand but I figured out that it is the precise time to speak it out. Go and reach your hands for a dialogue with those having made bad experiences with or mistrusting revolutionaries but also striving for an end of the regime. Go and reach your hands for a dialogue with those favoring the existing political system but not sharing the way of maintaining the power. Go and discover the different shades of darker and lighter grey. I‘m not speaking about the bunch of criminals on whose hands sticks the blood of the Syrian people. I‘m not questioning the fact that the regime crimes cannot be compared in relation to the crimes committed by those acting in the name of the revolution. I‘m speaking of those among the Syrians who became and become victims of the unleashed battle. Even if the regime will be fallen down you have to get aware that a minority of moderate Baathists will further exist in the Syrian society. That they‘ll have the same rights to participate in public life than each other. That‘s one of the core principles of democracy.

I think I‘ve said enough for the moment. From now on I‘ll track myself back from the activists‘ frontline. I realized that the abyss began to stare at me, pushing me mentally into the direction behind the sun. The next weeks, maybe the next months I have to reduce my activities around the Syrian revolution to launch my projects, to restructure my life and most of all to compensate the images and experiences of the last one and a half years. I always wished to raise more awareness with that what I did but I also realized when the time has come to mark new priorities.

Maybe you‘ll draw your own conclusions like that I became weak or traumatized or that I might have changed the sides.  Well, the last one is definitely not true, that I would sware with my hands on both holy books, the Quran and the Bible.

I could have reduced or even completely ended all my recent activities without letting you know. Simply stopping to write, to post, to share. But that is not my style. Those following me on this blog deserve this explanation.

Call me whatever you want after sharing with you my decision but each one of you fighting for the true values in the name of humanness will always have a granted place in my heart.

It's The System That Sucks

Noticed that the classical definitions of Left and Right are dissolving more and more?

One example. The struggle against the dictators Gaddafi and Assad was/is still counterstriked by anti-imperialist Leftists because both tyrants relied/rely upon an - admittedly crude - definition of socialism. Gaddafi is defeated in the meantime and the Libyans are on their way to experience the complex roadmap of democratic principles. The Syrians are still struggling against their stubborn self-declared leader. Viewed on the surface the naive fallacy concludes therefore:

Assad regime + socialists + anti-imperialists + Russia +China

vs

Syrian revolutionaries + republicans + democrats + Western world

Hm .. now where stands Israel? Well of course at the SyRevo side.

Does it?

After attacking Gaza a global outcry was heard whose voices also came from the Syian revolutionaries and those defending them.

Huh?

That means Israel has to be regarded as .. Assad loyalists?

Quite not. First of all the ruling political class has to be segregated from the public. The Nethanyahu government never opposed fully the Assad regime. Besides som kinky skirmishes - yes, they are - Jerusalem is in secret very glad about the fact having a rock solid dictatorship as neighbor. But the iron curtain the oppressors around the misanthropic family clan of the Assads were keeping up for more than five decades is collapsing. And a new gained freedom of the Syrian people might spill over the borders to .. exactly, Palestine. So Bibi and his ones are not amused about that circumstance because keeping the Palestinians in a state of permanent humiliation is their cemented credo.

Dilemma alert.

A deep trench drew through the SyRevo supporters' front. Those who were on the side of Israel began to argue with those defending the Palestinian cause (probably, and that is my personal opinion, that was one of Nethanyahu's intentions to indirectly back Assad during his delaying decoy. Therefore the condemnation of attacking Gaza by the Syrian state media has no real value). Fortunately some pundits declared that the whole thing is about death threatened civilians doesn't matter at which side of whatever border they stand.

Futher we have to take a closer look at the milkmaid's math sheet: despite some expressions of concern about the regime policy and some public chastisement the Western coalition wasn't able until now to support the revolutionaries with urgently needed help (I'm primarily not talking about weapons). Since Assad has spoken out the Salafi spell the international alliance hides itself behind tht napless argument. The geostrategical let's-wait-and-have-a-cup-of-tea was and is not working in favor of the revolutionaries.

Probably a new current is rising up in these times resisting both, the traditional right and the traditional left, realizing that each and all is connected and depending on each other. So are also the systems:

a vs b

red vs blue

black vs white

left vs right

To abolish the systemism as such with a finger snip is nearly impossible. But to brand the systemism as a hurdle on a longer way achieving togetherness instead of division could be an important basic step.

Tear Down This Wall!

Getting aware of the event was more by chance this evening. A woman handed out the flyers at the solidarity rally for the anti-austerity protests in Southern Europe. Among a handfull of newspapers and event references the A5 sheet announced a lecture about a West Jordan village strangled by the Israeli forces and the harsh settlement policy given by a native young non-violent resistance activist from the Palestine Youth For Peace And Justice.

I decided to join the event - not only because I began to freeze standing around for approximately an hour. Mainly older people were present when Saeed Amireh started to refer on the special kind of territorial policy the Israeli government was applying in his home Ni‘lin: from originally 5.800ha floor space only 800ha are left to the Palestinians to cultivate or build their houses. In the North East the town of the Israeli settlers growned until today up to 43.000 inhabitants while the population of Ni‘lin decreased from formerly 12.000 to 5.500. Numbers which underline the  systematically crowding out of the Palestinian residents in an area rather granted in the Gaza-Jericho Agreement of 1994.

Rather. Exceptions regarded existing or already begun to build settlements of the Israelis. But instead of working on a policy of negotiations and compromises the Israel government still pushes roughly the Palestinians aside to claim more and more Westbank territory their own. In the case of Ni‘lin all that led to the building of a concrete wall to connect the settlement with the territory of Israel cutting of the Palestinian village completely from the Eastern areas. This wall is also known as the apartheid wall.

When the first Israeli bulldozers arrived - accompanied by a lot of Israeli soldiers - in summer 2008 to build the wall ,out of security reasons‘ the inhabitants of Ni‘lin started their unarmed peaceful protests against that project. Immediately the defence forces violently cracked down the rally.

But the courageous villagers, among them the at that time 17 years old Saeed, decided to continue their peaceful protests. Daily. From nine ,o clock in the morning until sunset.

The reaction of the Israelis was to impose a curfew up to five consecutive days. The inhabitants of Ni‘lin were called up every morning at 3 am by shootings in the air and declarations via loudspeaker. As a determent measure to weaken and humiliate them their water tanks were shot. Regarding the average summer temperatures a drastic proof of strength.

The will to continue the protests against the apartheid wall was unbroken. By end of July the Israeli forces cracked down one of those protests by using rubber-coated bullets. Those bullets have a steel ball core and cause more than serious injuries fired at the people. Ten years old Ahmad Mousa was hit that day by such a bullet in the head. Sadly he had no chance to survive. Shivers flowed through my whole body when Saeed described his desperate attempts to save the boy‘s life. The in my opinion pervert fact is that the Israeli government calls this sort of ammunition as rubber bullets although the steel ball core makes it to a lethal projectile. Another young man who got two of those bullets in the head died four days later in the hospital. He became only 17 years old.

The Israeli forces used also rocket tear gas canisters to disperse the protesting crowd. With a weight of 3 kg the iron body of those canisters was able to break even through light walls. A person directly hit from a short to medium ranged distance could be easily killed.

Not to forget to mention that 0.22 caliber live ammo -international outlawed and therefore illegal - came into operation as tool to prevent protests. According to Saeed‘s report this ammunition which explodes on contact with the target was shot at 55 villagers.

All that in combination with street blockades as a strategy to suppress the protests of te Ni‘lin people and to secure the construction of the land dividing concrete wall. The defence forces also placed snipers on the rooftops of the Ni‘lin houses. The inhabitants tried all to prevent them from that, including Saeed‘s father. Random arrests followed by house raids, later directly on the village‘s streets. Since end of 2008 until now more than 360 people were arrested. The oldest one 55 years old. The youngest one 9 years old. According to Israeli law Palestinian children become juridically regarded of full age at 12. When they arrested Saeed and put him into prison for two months he was in his last school year to earn his necessary degree.

All of that couldn‘t stop him becoming an engaged activist for the cause of justice not only coaching but living the fundamental principles of non-violent resistance. One of its‘ basics is education and clarification through information. Being officially invited by Sweden he became the chance to travel to Europe to give speeches about the actual ongoings in Ni‘lin, a place never mentioned in our official media. Another side effect of the Israeli forces' street blockades to prevent journalists‘ or foreign activists‘ appearance. Fortunately even this blockade wall is poriferous and we here in Europe get the chance to meet a truly admirable young man trying to bring out the truth about his home and how the Israeli forces treat them.

At the end of Saeed‘s speech he showed us video footage material from the protests against the wall and the disgraceful, speechless leaving reactions of the Israeli forces. Some of the attendees have seen such images the first time.

Me neither.

The shocking element for me was that those images reminded me on Syria and the rude behavior of Assad‘s forces against the civil population (before the militia had gone completely berserk).

Cynically grining defence forces' soldiers raiding through the village, firing rocket tear gas ammo into buildings, arresting randomly, even shooting a blindfolded and handcuffed Palestinian out of immediate distance one of the infamous rubber bullets into the body - even ignoring the fact being filmed during their crimes.

Saeed Amireh from Ni'lin

For more and deeper going information about the whole story I recommend to visit the homepage www.nilin-village.org.

Several times the people of Ni‘lin successfully tore down parts of the apartheid wall. And their struggle against that project will continue.

With the engagement of guys like Saeed this struggle has the chance not to end as a lost battle.

Personal note: As a native German facing the younger history I‘m aware of the crimes against humanity committed against the Jewish population during the Third Reich. Critizising the policy of the Israeli government towards the Palestinians has absolutely nothing to do with Anti-Zionism or Anti-Semitism. These critics refer to the violations of human rights by the Israeli armed forces questioning the proceeding in general. Please note that before stereotyping me as a usual suspect. Thank you.

The Syria Policy: A Confession Of Failure

Almost twenty months after some kids sprayed graffiti on the walls in Daraa Assad's war of annihilation against the own population is climbing from one disgraceful top to the other. The humanitarian situation in Syria and its' neighboring countries worsens from day to day.

The Syrian revolutionaries, feeling betrayed and forgotten, fight a desperate but also courageous battle against a regime behaving like a radical sect but blaming the rest of the world as radical sectarians or their financers. Calls for a better equipment to withstand the regime forces' air raids were down-argued with the concerns, that they might end in the wrong hands.

Overcrowded refugee camps, critical hygienic conditions, lack of fresh water, medical supply missing - the to-do list is as long as an eight-year old child's list of Christmas wishes but even the big players among the international aid organizations have enormous problems to handle the crisis. Without the help measures of private initiatives worldwide - being able to implement direct help as unbureaucratic as possible - the whole situation would be far worse as it actually is.

The number of martyrs rises continuously. 182, 162, 234, 162, 156, 168, 123. The fever chart of Bashar's blasphemous bingo. This ordered killing spree serves only the interest to maintain the status quo as property owners but is sold as attempt to crackdown fierce extremist infiltrators. And the world still believes the fairy tale of that 'incredible threat for the whole universe' only Assad can defeat. It's no longer 'me or chaos!' like Saleh used to say. It's more a 'me or the Armageddon!' which unfortunately still convinces the worriers and fearmongers among the global ruling elite.

So how's the outlook for the upcoming winter? Dark, I suppose, if you still count on that miracle called international effective help for the freedom striving Syrians. But in relation to it bright if you consider the strength of resistance the world witnesses (if the finally dropped the off-button on their TV remote control and take a good, a real good look) which is in comparison to other people revolutions a really impressing and remarkable one.

The only miracle I see on the short-termed horizon is that all the regime top goons disappear. Vanish. Like ghosts. Best from one day to another. But instead of waiting for Godot I'm hoping the Syrians will keep up that energy level to topple those who have to come down after all they committed until now.

Syria: Overshadowing Provocations

They did it again.

This time firing a rocket. Or was it a grenade?

Anyway. They did it again.

Like they did several times before attacking Lebanese ground or provoking Iraqi border posts they violated now Turkish territory.

I mean, what do they expect? Begging ,punish us, please‘ and therefore inciting a major regional crisis? Well, yes, that might be their intention, simply to marginalize their measures officially claimed to ,defeat terrorists‘ but in fact to crackdown the legal demands of the own population.

The actual result? Turkey‘s more than not amused about all that - understandable. Hesitating to aid the Free Syrian Army fighters with the needed arms and ammunition (yes, they need thedm to defend themselves and to protect the civilians against regime assaults) out of fear that they end up in the hands of extremist groups (yes, they exist but I refuse to label them as al-Nusra or al-Qaeda or al-whatever) - limitedly understandable. The United States being more or less convinced that any kind of arms, even forks, will end up in the hands of extremist groups - a bit too fatalistic, isn‘t it?

The general attitude of the Western alliance isn‘t as bad neutrally regarded: telling the little brother not getting provoked by the schoolyard bully to avoid an escalating armed conflict beyond the Syrian borders. But exactly that is irritating. The US school of self-defense taught us in the last decade to reply in a much stronger language regaining respect. Of course, the latest interventions weren‘t as successful as desired and have left the impression a handful of strategical surgeons are still required to repair the involuntary damages of the first units. But that reasonable behaving new black is still perceived as uncommon.

Above all it doesn‘t actually help the suffering Syrians on the ground steadily being confronted with regime air raids, army attacks and shabeeha excursions in random mass slaughtering. Estimated number of refugees on the run in-between the country: about one million. Those people are desperately seeking shelter and cannot understand that the whole world continues to politicize their fate philosophing months long around expensive conference tables.

Weird but true: trying to convince the public from the complexity of the causa Syria the powerful seem to have forgotten even the most simple things like granting humanitarian basic care in such a situation. From tents to medical aid it lacks almost everywhere, not only in Syria but also in the neighboring countries not being prepared hosting such an enormous amount of refugees. And the winter is knocking on the door, the nights are getting colder, most people simply had not the time to think about their wardrobe when they had to flee.

Everything seems both so incredibly complicated and so simply logical.

Still a greater faction is convinced of a calculated global disinterest in helping the Syrian people but a closer look offers the home-made dilemma all parties are now in. All the ,if-then‘ considerations, the waging of options and the strategical maneuvres weakened the ability to act unbureaucratically, to explore new ways of effectivity.

And there we are now, one and a half years later: the increasing killings of Syrian civilians - cynically declared as terrorists, doesn‘t matter what age - continues and the true culprits are still hiding in their ivory tower built on conspiracy myths. Whenever this ongoing nightmare for the Syrian civil society will end, the moral damage of the world‘s powerful is irreversible - for many generations. A dark chapter in the history book of political responsibility, no doubt.

Muaß' Die Welt So Sei - Lyrics

Üble Sache, keine Frage, glasklare Sachlage

Schlägt sein eig'nes Volk tot, nicht nur nächtens, auch am Tage

Mann, was geht'n Oida, echt, mir wird mittlerweile schlecht

Schlachtet selbst Frau'n und Kinder und fühlt sich dabei im Recht

Doch die Welt, die schaut nur zu, 'halt den Mund und gib' a Ruh

Samma froh, dass ned bei uns so is', ja super, sag I - tfoo -

Hat die Menschheit scho vergessen, worauf's ankummt in am' Leben

Nämlich leben und leben lass'n und sich ned zum Gott erheben

Muaß' die Welt, muaß' die Welt, muaß' die Welt so sei

Wia's de ander'n geht, wurscht, Hauptsach' I bin frei

Muaß' die Welt, muaß' die Welt, muaß' die Welt so sei

Kann I was dran verändern? Ned? Dann is ma einerlei

Täglich bombardiern's die Dörfer, Viertel, Hoods und ganze Städte

Feuern blind Granaten auf de Leut', zerschiessen Minarette

Grod auf d'Welt gekommen wirst a scho' vom Mörserg'schoß zerrissen

Mit da Fernbedienung in da Hand sedier'n ma unser G'wissen

'Wos konn I scho' groß dro ändern?' fragt sich Hansi Mustermandl

Beisst genüsslich in sei Jaus'n drunt' am Strassenkioskstandl

Schaugt am Handvoll Demonstranten für de Menschenrechte zua

Denkt sich: 'Mei, vo solch' am G'schwerl hamma wirklich scho' g'nua'

Muaß' die Welt, muaß' die Welt, muaß' die Welt so sei

Wia's de ander'n geht, wurscht, Hauptsach' I bin frei

Muaß' die Welt, muaß' die Welt, muaß' die Welt so sei

Kann I was dran verändern? Ned? Dann is ma einerlei

Und de hohen Herrn da oben führen Stellvertreterkriege

Für de Krisengesprächsrund'n buchen's teur First-Class-Flüge

Trinken Tee mit de Verbrechern geng' de Menschheitsg'schicht

Und berufen sich auf den UN-Beobachterbericht

Bloß helfa dad' des ned viel in da jetz'gen Situation

Vo' am effektiven Flugverbot da hört man keinen Ton

Während ständig appelliert und verurteilt wird, leida

geht des brachiale Massenmorden an den Syrern weida

Muaß' die Welt, muaß' die Welt, muaß' die Welt so sei

Wia's de ander'n geht, wurscht, Hauptsach' I bin frei

Muaß' die Welt, muaß' die Welt, muaß' die Welt so sei

Kann I was dran verändern? Ned? Dann is ma einerlei

Doch, glaubt's ma's, liabe Leit

Scho' a weng Aufmerksamkeit

Kost' euch wirklich ned vui Zeit

Macht de Mensch'n drunt a Freud

Unser Mitgefühl is g'frogd

Und des is echt koa Sakrileg

Hauptsach mia ham amol g'sogd

Des Regime muaß weg!

Lyrics by Oliver Butenuth ©2012

Syria: The Lex Hafez Hovers Above All ..

To comprehend as far as possible the actions and thoughts of the Syrian regime leader you have to travel back a long time before the uprising started. Up to the moment the revolution broke out Bashar al-Assad represented a rulership vastly cemented between the geostrategical blocks of international policy, equipped with a rampart father and founder Hafez al-Assad installed as insurmountable. The fact that Syrian citizens were randomly detained, arrested, tortured and murdered since the invention of the Baathist system because they didn't fit into the harsh ideological image or were abused as deterrence to intimidate the population sensed as latent insubordinate didn't change for a long time the world's lack of awareness relating to the human rights' violations. No one took notice of the suffering Syrian people.

While Hafez was regarded as system builder whose egomaniac target-orientated self-awareness illuminated an aura of natural given rigor Bashar slipped rather involuntarily onto the throne twelve years ago. His older brother's death by accident turned the eye doctor who became amongst others a respectably accepted part of not only London's elites into the crowned heir of a perfidious networked power apparatus. His higher hopes to go strong as modern reformist with the liability to the digital age fulminated fastly in between the daily routine to serve the perpetuation of that power apparatus.

With the Arab awakening whose origin spark flew in spring 2011 over the entire MENA region the Syrians felt their unique chance to rise against the presidential dictatorship. Small hesitant protests took place in the beginning, starting from the south of the country, often only a handful of courageous activists rallying around the house blocks and chanting the in the meantime historical slogan 'the people want the removal of the regime'. With the increasing number of both anti-regime protests and its participants ending without mass detentions or bloodshed the civilians' courage grew to brave the tyrant. But the regime-loyal security forces didn't wait long to reply on the people's demands. Very soon the first documents were uploaded confirming that the regime troops opened the fire without warning on unarmed protesters.

That what was estimated at that time as tragical average crackdown measure following the Arab Spring uprisings like in Yemen or Bahrain mutated during the past one and a half year to an adjusting screw of escalating oppression. The strategic direction of the regime's reply was from the first moment on clearly to identify: to guarantee the perpetuation of the dictatorial system month by month more civilian victims were calculated in the regime's self-declared battle against terrorism and foreign intervention. Just like his father who'd made a horrific example of power by mass-murdering insurgents and residents of Hama in 1982 Bashar al-Assad conducts until today the lethal crackdown referring to his hegemonial right of saving the own existence as potentate.

Extremely merciless self-conception

If Syria wouldn't be a nation but a family run business company Bashar al-Assad could be considered as junior principal enforcing the founder's last will with an iron fist. Not implicitly as brute as it was the faded patriarch's habit, more gentle, more moderate, more understated, just like the modern archetype of executive manager. His outward appearance is not really significant, accurately tailored suits, casual wear referred to his age and his rank are making him more exchangeable than eccentric. Not to forget that he's airing total control over his emotions, occasional laughter for example appears like part of a dramaturgical script and not of his natural mentality. To compare him with enigmatic autoritarian dictators like Muammar al-Ghaddafi or Jean-Bedel Bokassa is incorrect considering two main reasons: one is that Bashar al-Assad doesn't possess the extraverted egocentrism of the both overcome tyrants, the other that he represents the second generation of a hereditary dictatorship therefore not being counted among the dictatorial founders' circle.

The dynastic element of the Assad regime plays another important role reflecting the ruler's behavior. Above a cleverly elaborate spider web consisting of regular army and paramilitary security forces, the 'ghosts', of different intelligence branches and a net of informants thrones the Assad clan. Regarded from outside it can be perceived as distorted picture of a manor family: mother Anisa, born Makhlouf and former house maid before she married Hafez; her sons Bashar and the younger Maher, well-known for his flaring up temperament and his emotional immunity towards barbaric cruelties; daughter Bushra, reportedly fled to another country in the region because of a reported inner familiar quarrel about loyality .. without mentioning all the other characters in and around the presidential stronghold a pattern emerges remarkably reminding on the 80's US soaps Dallas or Denver. With the crucial difference that it was oil in the TV series being a tool to gain and maintain power and not the ruthless decimation of the own population.

Whatever might be interpreted analyzing Bashar al-Assad's personality structure, for undeniably sure is the fact that suppressing of the majority of the Syrians' individual rights was taught him by nurture. All of his actions rely solely upon his father's stalwart claim for power keeping the family on top of the tyranny. Flanked by the Iranian regime and the Lebanese Hezbollah Bashar al-Assad executes the Lex Hafez, the persecution of power at all costs.

And so it is far from astonishing that the international community expecting Assad's ability for compromises, be it the Arab League or the United Nations body, are banging their heads against a brickwall. All arguments to see reason and to move out of his titanic position, even only a few inches, are rolling off like water drops on a duck's plumage. Mediators, negotiators or special envoys struggling with efforts to solve the crisis stay unheard, their proposals unregistered, their offers trail away in the reception halls of the presidential palace. It verges already on negligent naivety further to believe in the tyrant's accomodation because of the calculated increasing of murdered civilians the regime's responsible for.

Concealing the actual vulnerability

However, this means not confessing to surrender in the light of the regime's power persecuting measures. The freedom striving Syrians have proved their ability of resilience necessary to resist against the unwanted totalitarian system. The influence of the regime-loyal forces are drastically decreased in certain parts of the country, army and shabeeha are focussing their units on strategic goals like Damascus, Aleppo and the coastal region whereas revolutionary hot spots like Homs become humiliated out of the regime's perspective by permanent attacks with heavy arms and the cutting of supply channels. Nevertheless the ruler's clan reminds picturing the self-knitted image being the real victims of an unleashed conspiracy infection invading the Assad-Syrian body and justifying excessive acts of reprisal against civilians doesnt matter what age without enlarging bloody details.

Without the dramatically increasing number of victims - for example air raids on crowds in front of a bakery in a densely populated neighboorhood - the tactics of the global community's observant faction could be thoroughly successful. The regime clan's splendid isolation exposes at once their Achilles heel: the family construct itself. Similar to the previously mentioned TV soaps the element of intrigue could develop middle-termed to the misadvantage of the Assads. A self-laceration of the regime's top would definitely become favored by the global community's representants releasing them from any form of intervention demanded.

But the continuing crimes against humanity devalue the reputance of global policy and international diplomacy day by day. Remarks of outrage appear as empty phrases, threats of tightening sanctions as helpless gestures. Still no one is taking notice of the suffering Syrian people. Still the Syrians are left alone with their struggle. And no one has to be surprized if they refused to deal with all geostrategical block leaders after finishing successfully their revolution.