30-Dec-12: A small, bitter taste of being at the receiving end

The rock hurled at a moving vehicle
in today's attack [Image Source]

We started this blog to give as a forum to write here the war being waged by the terrorists, an ongoing war.

We often mention the circumstances that impelled us to want to write: the cruel and painful loss of the beautiful life of our daughter Malki who was fifteen when she was murdered in an act of Hamas savagery. But neither here in our blog, nor elsewhere, do we dwell on the events themselves: how we felt that day, what it looked like from up close. It's enough that the facts be known.

In trying to give an as-it-happens overview of the events in this ongoing war, we mention attacks that most people often don't know anything about. The reporting of the acts of terrorism, as we have said here often, is poor, sporadic and mostly not informative or analytic. People far from the scene usually don't know what happened (unless it turns out to be an especially expensive attack) because the mainstream news organizations no longer see much value in reporting them. And they rarely comprehend or try to examine what these attacks do to the people exposed to them, the survivors.

Earlier today (Sunday), another in a long, long line of so-called rock-throwing attacks landed on top of a young family from the small pioneering community of Rehalim in the Binyamin region of Judea, north of Jerusalem. (It's close to the older and larger Shiloh community, and has a population of about 40 young families, including some 50 pre-school children.)

Arutz Sheva/Israel National News published a first-person account some hours ago, accompanying it with photos of some aspects of the aftermath. It's a somewhat sanitized report: no screaming toddlers here; no photos of family members comforting each other; no facial close-ups showing the shock, the relief, the fear. Instead, we have some dispassionate photos of the family's car and of the rock that came within inches of causing a terrible tragedy.

Miracle Saves Baby from Rock-Throwing Terrorist
Israel National News | December 20, 2012  |  A rock-throwing Arab teenager nearly killed a baby Sunday morning when the huge rock he hurled at the car crashed a few inches from the infant... “We were driving south from Rehalim when an Arab around 17 years old, standing next to a school, threw a huge rock at the car”... [The family's vehicle was] traveling around 80 kilometers an hour (50 mph), and the rock smashed through the car window and landed only a few inches from the baby’s seat. [The driver, the child's father] was sitting with his wife in the vehicle, and their eight-year-old son and two-year-old daughter were sitting next to the infant... Mainstream media did not report the attack, following usual practice to ignore rock-throwing unless it causes an accident or injury.

The INN report makes the point that when seventeen year-old Palestinian Arabs, like the one today, hurl rocks - which are frequently more accurately termed boulders - at Israeli vehicles on the roads, their aim is to inflict maximum injury. Preferably, to kill.

The criminal prosecution of the Arab gang accused of killing Asher Palmer and his two-year-old son a year ago near Kiryat Arba has focused some attention (certainly not enough) on the growing phenomenon. We have attended some of the hearings in the Military Tribunal at Machane Ofer, and have written about the tragedy of the Palmer murders - see "11-Oct-11: Living with neighbours who want us all back to the stone age". The words we use ("rock" and "throwing") to describe these acts of murder and attempted murder simply do not do justice to the savagery of the attacks.

Perhaps viewing the images below - so 'insignificant' an attack that it will surely go almost completely unreported - will convey a taste of the realities and the danger facing Israelis who live near and among the thugs who celebrate such deeds.

Every week or so, we republish here the latest of Yehudit Tayar's reports on the war that is mostly unreported: we invite you to review the most recent one: "25-Dec-12: Scenes from the front lines, courtesy of the Tayar Report". Yehudit's bulletins leave little doubt about the growing rate and scope of rock hurling and boulder-throwing attacks like today's.

The images above and below of the vehicle come from the Israel National News report of today's attack on the family from Rehalim.

29-Dec-12: How did Israel fight back against Hamas with such painstaking accuracy and still get so beaten up?

From the Fox News website - click to view

Paul Alster, writing on the Fox News website, asks a question that - had it been asked - would have done credit to the news teams of the BBC, Associated Press, Reuters and/or the New York Times who, though they have their people scattered all over the Middle East, somehow are unable to formulate things quite this way:

A single Syrian missile strike on a bakery near Hama killed more than 60 innocent civilians last week, so how did Israel manage to fire more than 1,500 high powered missiles into densely-populated Gaza in November, with the total loss of 161 lives, of which 90 have been acknowledged by Hamas itself as active combatants?

About that bakery attack, and numerous other bakery attacks, we posted our thoughts just four days ago [see "25-Dec-12: Know your barbarians"]

Alster's answer, certainly worth your click, starts this way:

The numbers speak for themselves, but very little credit has so far been given by foreign governments, NGOs, and the international media for the care taken by the Israeli military to avoid collateral damage during its recent vicious engagement with Hamas and Islamic Jihad fighters. [more]

Framing an article this way does not mean Israel should be compared in any way to the loathsome, blood-soaked Syrian armed forces. Most thinking people aware of the realities of the Middle East know that. On the other hand, individuals with an ideological predisposition to kicking out at Israel at every opportunity will see things differently; the facts tend to be less urgent for them.

Case in point #1: the faded rock singer Roger Waters whose glory days included his being a lead member of the Pink Floyd band. He plays a different style of gig these days, including an appearance last month at the UN's annual Israel-bashing "observance" of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People [pictures here]. In his own words, Waters appeared there "representing global civil society" (no less); called for greater understanding of the Hamas side of the argument; demanded action against Israel's "illegal apartheid regime"; and warned his audience never to assume that "I support the launching of missiles into Israel". The video below captures some of the highlights of Waters' November 29 performance:



Case in point #2: Colonel Richard Kemp, a thinking person's senior soldier, served in the British military from 1977 to 2005 rising to the role of Commander of British Forces in Afghanistan and completing 14 operational tours of duty around the globe. When asked about Israel's conduct vis a vis civilians in Gaza in 2008, he famously said

"based on my knowledge and experience, I can say this: during operation Cast Lead, the Israeli Defense Forces did more to safeguard the rights of civilians in the combat zones than any other army in the history of warfare". [Wikipedia] 

A little less famously, he explained:

"of course innocent civilians were killed. War is chaos and full of mistakes. There have been mistakes by the British, American and other forces in Afghanistan and in Iraq, many of which can be put down to human error. But mistakes are not war crimes..." [Wikipedia] 

And this explanation by Kemp after the November 2012 Pillar of Defence battle conducted by Israel against the Hamas forces. Concerning the bias of certain media outlets when it comes to reporting on Israel and its military, he said:

"It was clear to me that there was a great deal of propaganda that was being generated against Israel, and then being exploited by people who didn't understand military matters and didn't want to question it, it suited their agenda to vilify Israel... People ask me why I have a pro-IDF point of view. I consider myself as having an objective view of what's happening over here. The IDF does not need me to defend them; they have proven it over the years... It's the dispassionate military perspective that I bring." [more]

The British Parliament

Case in point #3: certain political figures in the British parliament. This snippet comes from a report published Thursday:

According to the online [UK] parliamentary archive, 21 EDMs (formal motions submitted for debate in the House of Commons, although not necessarily discussed) relating to Israel have been put forward since the 2012-2013 session began. In contrast, just two refer to the situation in Syria... [more]

In other words, the situation in Syria where the mass killing of tens of thousands of Syrians during 2011 and 2012 by the forces of the vicious second-generation dictator fighting for his political and personal survival against a mass revolt continues unabated right up to this very minute, gets less then ten percent of the attention that these British parliamentarians devote to kicking at Israel.

We can think of several kinds of reason why politicians might engage in such egregiously partisan conduct. But then so can most of our readers, so we'll end the post here.

28-Dec-12: Where is the hope? A reminder of why we do this

Some ten days ago, with the civil year winding down to its close, we thought it appropriate to re-publish an end-of-year call [it's here] that we had originally made six years earlier.

Here's how it starts:

We lost our child to an act of barbaric murder and incomprehensible hatred. Our response has been to create the Malki Foundation in our daughter's name and to raise money and distribute it very efficiently in a way that allows us to do a lot good. You can get the whole picture at the website of the Malki Foundation. But if you're click-resistant, here's the brief version.

For Israeli families (Jews, Christians, Moslems, Druze, others) who have a special-needs child like the little boy above being helped by his brother, we provide substantial subsidies to enable five kinds of therapy: physical, occupational, speech, water and horse-riding... The parents decide how much therapy, which therapies and which therapist. We aim to empower them, and certainly not to patronize or direct them. They get enough of that from the establishment.
We also provide long-term free loans of home-care equipment like beds, wheelchairs, walkers and standers. The goal, again, is to make home-care a real option for such families. 

In a country which has some fine institutional solutions, we believe that home care is and always will be the best option for a child with serious disabilities. For those who agree (not everyone), we want to help in our murdered daughter's name. We are doing this today for many hundreds of families with a special-needs child... [more]

And here's why we are mentioning it again.

The Jerusalem Post published an op ed piece yesterday by Prof. Samuel Heilman, Distinguished Professor of Sociology at Queens College in New York (which happens to be Frimet's alma mater). Entitled "Where is the hope?", his short essay [online here] mentions a report that very recently went to air on the BBC

in which a Gaza teacher describes the “therapy” provided for young Palestinian children traumatized by the eight days of bombing and fire rained upon them by Israel. To allow them to express their feelings, the little children were taken to a public square and lined up. Some were dressed in the green uniform of Hamas fighters and were “armed” with toy machine guns that they were encouraged to shoot in the air at Israelis. Then an Israeli flag was placed on the ground in front of them and set ablaze while all the youngsters stamped on it and screamed epithets of hatred toward Israel and Israelis, with the encouragement of their teachers, as passersby in the square watched. This, she said, allowed them to give voice to their feelings so that they would not remain bottled up inside [more]

As parents of a child deliberately murdered by people who hate Israel and everything it and its people stand for, we also had to find a way to give voice to our feelings so that they would not remain bottled up inside.

Of course, we write this blog. And in addition we created Keren Malki, a foundation in our daughter's memory that does concrete things to benefit families who are raising a special-needs child, irrespective of their political outlook or religion. To see what we is been done day after day in our daughter's memory with the help of many friends, please click here. Keep Keren Malki in mind if you are inclined to make an end-of-year charitable gift.

Click for an overview of Keren Malki's work. And please tell your friends.

28-Dec-12: Two sharply different understandings of what the death of a fifteen year-old child in Iran signifies

From "Iran experiencing luxury car boom" [source]

From bitter experience, we know how much can be learned about a country's values by how it relates to the deaths of its children.

Six weeks ago, the Guardian (UK) published a heart-rending news item over the by-line of Saeed Kamali Dehghan, reporting on the death of an Iranian boy,  Manouchehr Esmaili-Liousi. The fifteen year old suffered from haemophilia, a genetic disorder in which the body's ability to control bleeding and blood clotting is impaired. The well-publicized report is headed

Iranian boy 'dies after sanctions disrupt medicine supplies': Trade restrictions and measures imposed on Iranian banks by US and EU blamed for drug shortages

Dehghan, an Iranian journalist writing for the Guardian, le Monde and other prestigious Western outlets, was the Foreign Press Association's Journalist of the Year in 2010, and a recipient of the 70th annual Peabody Award for film. His work has appeared on CNN, CBC, France 24, the UK's Channel 4 and HBO. [He also has his detractors.]

If like us you read the Guardian article from start to finish, you will see not a single word suggesting there might be a different side to the account of Manouchehr's sad end, other than the interpretation placed on it by the officials of the Iranian government. It was 

due to a shortage of medicine in the country... the first civilian death said to be directly linked to the impact that western economic sanctions are having on the Islamic republic... His family failed to find the vital medicine he desperately needed for his disease, Iran's state news agencies reported on Wednesday.The news was announced by Ahmad Ghavidel, the director of Iran's haemophilia society. He blamed Esmaili-Liousi's death on the US and EU for their punitive measures against Tehran, which are also hitting imports of medicine and hospital equipment. Although sanctions are not directly targeting Iranian pharmacies and medical sectors, measures imposed on Iranian banks and trade restrictions have made life extremely difficult for patients across the country, who are facing difficulties in finding medicines made outside Iran. "This is against human rights … Even in wars, women and children and patients are protected by some impunity based on international treaties," Ghavidel said, according to quotes carried by the state Irna news agency. "But sanctions hitting medicine in Iran are causing a silent death and are a ploy to hurt the health of Iranian people." 

Saeed Kamali Dehghan's November 14
article in the Guardian

The Guardian's - and Saeed Kamali Dehghan's - report dovetails closely with an earlier news item carried by the notorious Fars News Agency (affiliated with Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps) in November, which provided a soapbox for the president of the Iranian Academy of Medical Sciences to complain bitterly  

about the medical impact of the sanctions in a letter to Ban Ki-moon, the United Nations secretary general. Dr. Marandi called the sanctions brutal measures that had increased mortality rates “as a result of the unavailability of essential drugs and shortages of medical supplies and equipment” [more]

Fars says the US and other Western countries are

Targeting Iranian Children through Sanctions [FARS headline] 

but the reality, as happens so often with news reports appearing in the highly-ideological end of the journalistic spectrum that the Guardian occupies, and with the overt propaganda of Iran's state-controlled media, is different. 

Yesterday (Thursday), the president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, 

appointed a caretaker health minister, Mohammad Hassan Tariqat-Monfared, and had told him in a presidential decree that the reduction of people’s health care expenses was among “the main priorities of this important ministry”

according to the New York Times. The reason Ahmadinejad had to appoint a caretaker was because, earlier the same day, he had

dismissed his health minister, the only woman to serve in the cabinet since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, after she publicly criticized the government’s response to acute shortages of medicine imports [more]

The NYT says the ousted minister, Dr. Marzieh Vahid-Dastjerdi, a gynecologist, was appointed in 2009 and was known as an advocate for Iranian women’s rights. Last month, she irritated Iran's president by speaking out against the inadequate budget of foreign currency set aside by the Ahmadinejad regime for the purchase of medicines abroad, saying (according to Reuters):

“I have heard that luxury cars have been imported with subsidized dollars, but I don’t know what happened to the dollars that were supposed to be allocated for importing medicine..." 

Yesterday was payback day. Clearly the health minister failed to understand that in authoritarian regimes like today's Iran, while (yes) there is a need for medicine and so on, prestige vehicles [as this Tehran Times article explains] also play a key role. Think of it as a matter of political balance. And as for dead and dying children, well - they're also an issue etc.

Some of that needed balance was in evidence in a clear-eyed, straight-talking report two days ago in the Times of London (also in The Australian) which we suspect may not have been noticed by enough people, even those who are concerned about what's being done by and to Iran:

Tehran lied about boy ‘killed by sanctions’
Hugh Tomlinson | Published at 12:01AM, December 26 2012

IN death, Manouchehr Esmaili-Liousi became an instant celebrity, the unwitting poster boy for Iran's growing deprivation under sanctions and the inhumanity of the West.
Five weeks on, the teenager's death has instead underlined the hypocrisy of his own government, desperate to shift the blame for a deepening health crisis amid accusations that state corruption is putting lives at at risk.
Manouchehr, a 15-year-old haemophiliac, was admitted to hospital in the southwestern town of Dezful last month, bleeding uncontrollably from a flesh wound. He died, it was claimed, because local doctors had run out of drugs to treat him. Officials and state media pounced on the tragedy, claiming the teenager as the first civilian death directly linked to the sanctions imposed by the West to curb Iran's nuclear program.
"The US and EU are behind setting regulations that disguise what are really sanctions on food and medication, which are not supposedly on their boycott lists," said Ahmad Ghavidel, head of Iran's Haemophilia Society.
It was a tragic story, but it was not true. 
Sources in Dezful and doctors have confirmed that Manouchehr fell and cut himself while hiking in the mountains. It took almost two hours for him to reach hospital. By the time he arrived, he had lost too much blood to be saved.
The shortage of medicines is real. Government data obtained by The Times confirms the country has sufficient stockpiles of drugs to last only another 100 days. Hospitals have already begun to run out of anaesthetic for operations.
But the campaign over Manouchehr's death underscored the eagerness in Tehran to blame sanctions for the crisis, shifting attention away from the toxic combination of mismanagement and corruption in the government.
Any opportunity is seized upon. Medical personnel in the town of Karaj told of an incident after the death of a 42-year-old woman from a stroke. The woman's family was approached by officials offering to pay all funeral costs if a camera crew could film the ceremony. The woman's sister was asked to record a personal message to US President Barack Obama from the graveside, blaming him and sanctions for her sister's death. The family declined. "This had nothing to do with a shortage of medicine - they were just trying to make capital out of other people's grief," said one Iranian source.
Marzieh Vahid Dastjerdi, Iran's Health Minister, has spoken out repeatedly against government cuts to her department. Some $US2 billion ($1.9bn) in promised funding has not materialised. The regime's response has been to launch a motion to impeach her. [And yesterday it succeeded - TOW]
Medical imports are exempt from sanctions, but the government has slashed healthcare funding as the Revolutionary Guard continues to profit from the crisis. A subsidised exchange rate, imposed by Tehran to ring-fence imports of food and medicine from Iran's currency crisis, has been exploited by the powerful militia to fund the purchase of luxury goods. Regime officials continue to enjoy world-class healthcare while choking off medical funding to ordinary citizens. Surplus drugs from Revolutionary Guard hospitals are dumped on the black market, where they are sold to health groups and civilians at three times the price.

There is much that is unhealthy in the Islamic Republic of Iran, but not only there: also in the journalistic and editorial ethos and morality of those who look and refuse to see.

27-Dec-12: With overwhelming support at home for Hamas violence, is this how we should deal with them?

Gunmen celebrate in front of press cameras, Gaza
November 2012 [Image Source]

A version of the op ed below was published by The Algemeiner earlier this week.

So who is partnering with Hamas now?    

Frimet Roth

A recent ArabWorld Research and Development poll has revealed that 88% of Palestinians favor armed resistance against Israel over negotiations as the path to independence. In May 2011, 59% of West Bank residents supported an immediate return to negotiations with Israel. This new poll has that number down to 43%.

These results, have generated much media buzz. First, because the numbers are worrisome and second because PM Netanyahu had convinced most citizens that relations with our West Bank neighbors were, if not peachy, at least stable.

Netanyahu has labored diligently to calm us. It’s what incumbents do when their re-election matters more than anything else, even the truth. And as anyone who is even slightly acquainted with our Prime Minister knows, nothing is a higher priority for him that retaining power.

One truth that Netanyahu has endeavored to conceal from voters is the numerous concessions he made and promised to Hamas in order to win the cease-fire and temporary lull we are now enjoying.

Alex Fishman reported last month in Ynet [source]:

“The State of Israel is conducting regular negotiations, more or less, with Hamas. About once a week an Israeli delegation travels to Cairo, where it holds talks on easing financial constraints, which effectively means Israel is holding talks on easing the siege on Gaza”

Israel was talking with Hamas even before the latest Gazan war, but only about financial relief. Since the so-called “victory” against Hamas, the talks have included the easing of security restrictions to the point of ending the blockade totally. Netanyahu is no longer striving to topple Hamas but rather to strengthen it for the sake of stability and calm.

Small wonder that Palestinians on the street view Hamas as the true victor.

Political analysts have noted that Hamas’ celebratory demonstrations in the West Bank after Pillar of Defense were the first such displays permitted by the Abbas regime since 2006. However the fact is that Hamas was already flexing its muscle there over a year ago. We have Netanyahu’s Shalit deal to thank for that.

In October 2011, Netanyahu disguised the Shalit deal cave-in to Hamas demands as a victory. Then, as now, the Israeli public swallowed this hook, line and sinker. The alarming display of Hamas support in the theretofore anti-Hamas West Bank was only briefly reported by isolated sources. But there was no beating around the bush.

For instance, the day after Gilad Shalit’s return home, in a piece entitled “Shalit deal throws Hamas a lifeline” [source], Avi Issacharoff wrote in Haaretz that the swap deal that freed abducted soldier Gilad Shalit in exchange for 1,027 Palestinian prisoners was “the first significant achievement since the Hamas government in Gaza was established in January 2006”.

He added:

“Tuesday showed that after nearly four years, Hamas has reared its head in the West Bank. It's doing so with Israel's help… It was a sad day… Hamas celebrating in the streets of the West Bank, masses of people vowing to kidnap Israelis, songs of praise of Hamas’ military wing…”

On October 18, 2011, Haaretz reported that Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh speaking at a Gaza celebration called the Shalit deal a strategic turning point in Hamas’s struggle against Israel [source].

“It was thanks to our resistance that we were able to release the land and the people…”

Just as the media glossed over this reality, they ignored Netanyahu’s next concession to Hamas terrorists.

In June 2012, he permitted Nizar al-Tamimi to cross the border into Jordan in order to join his fiancée Ahlam Tamimi, the engineer of the Sbarro massacre. Both had been freed in the Shalit deal. Nazir al-Tamimi, convicted in 1993 of killing Chaim Mizrachi and then burning his body, was serving a life sentence. His release was explicitly conditioned on his remaining permanently within the areas controlled by the Palestinian Authority.

Netanyahu decided to give Ahlam Tamimi the “gift” of her fiancé. For the sake of my daughter’s murderer and the murderer of 14 other Jews, among them 8 children, Netanyahu waived that condition. Israel did not benefit in any way.

Once again, Hamas staged a high profile celebration – the murderers’ wedding. And once again, Netanyahu swept the concession under the carpet.

Israelis stand poised to hand Netanyahu a fresh mandate to proceed on his path of submission to terrorists. At this juncture, it would be wise to scrutinize his clandestine actions. Are we pleased that, after Operation Pillar of Defense, Netanyahu agreed to reward the aggressor by expanding Gaza’s fishing area, increasing the amount of construction material entering Gaza and ceding much of our Gaza border buffer zone, excluding only the Erez and Kerem Shalom crossings? Is there any sense in that?

And what will Netanyahu hand our enemies next? Do we really want our neighbors, brazenly sworn to our destruction, to work in our midst? Granting Gazans that right is actually being discussed.

Naturally, Netanyahu’s right wing voter base would not be pleased with these revelations. He throws sand in their eyes with his repeated settlement-expansion announcements and prays they stay blinded until election day.

Will we help or hinder his plans?

25-Dec-12: Scenes from the front lines, courtesy of the Tayar Report

Rock-hurling, vehicle-seeking
Palestinian Arab 'activist' 'militants' [Image Source]

The chronology below is a continuation of the reports we have published in recent months based on information received via the Tayar Security Report, with some editing and annotating by us. Yehudit Tayar produces her invaluable bulletins on the basis of first-responder, police and army reports.

Monday December 17, 2012

• Gush Etzion-Hevron highway, near the Karmei Zur community: Several Israeli vehicles came under rock attack by Arabs; damage is caused to one of the cars

Tuesday December 18, 2012

• Multiple rock attacks by Palestinian Arabs against Israeli vehicles:

• Between El Arub and Beit Ummar
• Hevron at the IDF post near Bet Romano
• Samaria between Ma'aleh Shomron and Azun
• The Arab village of Luban A-Sharqiya
• Near the entrance to the Israeli village Kfar Tapuah
• The road between the Israeli communal villages of Hermesh and Mevo Dotan - damage is caused to multiple vehicles
• Hevron, near the Cave of the Patriarchs: A tourist bus is attacked by Arabs - rocks cause window damage
• Near Migdal Oz in Gush Etzion: Three fire-bombs (Molotov cocktails) are thrown from a passing Arab vehicle at an Israeli vehicle. The culprits are seen fleeing to the village of Bet Fa'jar

Wednesday December 19, 2012

• Gush Etzion-Hevron road near Beit Ummar: An Israeli bus comes under rock  attack by Arabs
• Samaria – west of Ma'aleh Shomron: Several Israeli vehicles come under rock attack by Arabs – several vehicles are damaged
• Route 443 – the Modi'in/Jerusalem highway near the IDF post at Maccabim:  Several Israeli vehicles come under rock attack by Arabs – several vehicles are damaged
• Jerusalem: In the vicinity of the Shu’afat “refugee” “camp”, three fire bombs (Molotov cocktails) are hurled by Palestinian Arabs

Thursday December 20, 2012

• Yehudit is authorized to disclose that units of the IDF and the security services arrested several Arabs during November, in the course of Operation Pillar of Defense. Those arrested include Bedouin Arabs from the Negev region, and Palestinian Arabs from the Hevron region. They are charged with being involved in a terrorist stabbing attack in Be'er Sheva on November 19, 2012.

Friday December 21, 2012

• At the Rama military base, adjacent to A-Ram in east Jerusalem: Two Palestinian Arabs attacked an IDF soldier at the checkpost of the base, using tear gas, stole his weapon and fled. The soldier was injured in the attack and received medical treatment from IDF ambulance staff.

Saturday December 22, 2012

• At the IDF checkpoint on the Gush Etzion-Hevron highway at Beit Ummar: Service personnel manning the post come under violent attack by rock-hurling Palestinian Arabs. An officer is struck in the head and suffers injuries requiring hospital treatment. Two of the Arab attackers are injured; one from gunfire to a leg. The Arabs are treated by Red Crescent ambulance crew.

Sunday December 23, 2012

• In the Binyamin region, on the Abud bi-pass road north-west of Ramallah: Three fire-bombs (Molotov cocktails) are thrown from a passing Arab vehicle at an Israeli vehicle.
• Near Ma'aleh Michmas: Arabs obstruct the highway with rocks and nails.  Two IDF vehicles are damaged.
• North-west of Ramallah near Luban A-Sharqiya  Several Israeli vehicles come under rock attack by Arabs – several vehicles are damaged
• Near Ofra in the Mateh Binyamin region: An Israeli bus come under rock attack by Palestinian Arabs

Monday December 24, 2012

• The IDF Spokesman says a Palestinian Arab armed with a 17 cm-long knife is stopped at the IDF post south-west of Bethlehem and taken into custody for interrogation
• On the Gush Etzion-Hevron road near El Arub, an Israeli bus comes under rock attack by Arabs, causing damage to the vehicle
• In the vicinity of Omer-Meitar in Israel's Southern District: Bedouin Arabs from the Abukaf tribe attack an Israeli bus filled with IDF service personnel; two soldiers are injured
• Gush Etzion-Hevron road near Beit Ummar:  Several massive and violent attacks by rock-throwing Arabs; a traveler suffers head injuries from flying glass. It is important to note the increasing levels of violence on the roads, directed at Israelis traveling in cars and buses
• Luban A-Sharqiya:  An Israeli bus comes under rock attack by Arabs; there is damage to the bus
• Southern Hevron Hills region near El Fu’ar: Rock-throwing Palestinian Arabs attack Israeli vehicles traveling on the roads 
• Adjacent to the Moshav Shekef community: A fire-bomb (Molotov cocktail) is hurled at the security fence

Tuesday December 25, 2012 (today)

• Yehudit is authorized to disclose that units of the IDF and the security services arrested terrorists today in the Ramallah region; they are alleged to have been planning the execution of multiple terror attacks including the attempted abduction of Israelis in order to secure the release of Ahmad Sa’adat, the head of the terrorist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), who is jailed in Israel.
• Near the Oranit checkpoint in the direction of Rosh HaAyin: Rock throwing attacks by Palestinian Arabs were directed against Israeli vehicles. There is property damage
• Near the T-Junction in Gush Etzion: Rock throwing attacks by Palestinian Arabs are directed against Israeli vehicles. There is property damage
• Vicinity of Turmos Aya, north-east of Ramallah, close to the community of Shilo: an Israeli bus comes under rock attack by Arabs

Postscript from Yehudit Tayar: "These reports are translated and publicized by Hatzalah Yehudah and Shomron with the clearance and confirmation of the IDF. Hatzalah Yehudah and Shomron is a voluntary emergency medical organization with over 500 volunteer doctors, paramedics, medics who are on call 24/7 and work along with the IDF, 669 IAF Airborn Rescue, the security officers and personal throughout Yesha and the Jordan Valley, and with MDA. We, the volunteers of Hatzalah Yehudah and Shomron go out to rescue anyone who needs our emergency medical assistance; including civilians, military and Arabs also those within the PA territories. (with IDF presence) To us a life is precious and we go out at risk leaving home and family or stopping on the road to rescue anyone in need."

25-Dec-12: Have we been overlooking southern Lebanon? The Iranian proxy force up there has not

Hassan Nasrallah, Hizbullah leader, addresses the faithful
from a hidden (and secure) location, August 2012 [Image Source]

It's relatively quiet on Israel's Lebanon border for the moment, and a good time to pay attention to the things going on there that don't get reported so much outside of Israel.

Things like this matter of explosions in rural villages that have the grim misfortune of being occupied by the Hizbullah terrorist forces.

In the early morning of 17 December, a loud explosion was heard in the town of Tair Harfa in southern Lebanon... 2.5 kilometers from the Israeli border. Lebanese media did not report any injuries, and this was confirmed by the mayor of Tair Harfa... The explosion occurred in a munitions depot belonging to Hizbullah. The building where the munitions were stored is located on the outskirts of the town near residential dwellings. There is a school about 300 meters from the munitions depot. Immediately following the explosion, dozens of Hizbullah men sealed off the area and proceeded to erase all evidence of the incident, flattening the warehouse and removing what was left of the arms and explosives that had been stored there. UNIFIL soldiers arrived in the area, but access to the actual site of the blast was blocked by Hizbullah. Lebanese army soldiers were also denied access to the site. This is the fourth explosion that has occurred in the last few years in Hizbullah munitions depots in South Lebanon... UN Security Council Resolution 1701... calls for the disarmament of the Hizbullah and prohibits the storage of arms near the border with Israel. The Hizbullah's military network in southern Lebanon includes munitions depots as well as military outposts. Most of the military infrastructure is located in populated areas, in dozens of Shiite villages in the south... The arms, missiles and explosives are stored near residential homes and other civilian buildings such as schools and mosques. Hizbullah is endangering innocent Lebanese civilians, in order to conceal its military activity in southern Lebanon, in direct contravention of UN Resolution 1701.
Experience tells us no one in the international news media is going to pay any attention to yet another series of Arab-on-Arab attacks. They will rouse themselves only when Hizbullah's well-entrenched and armed-up-the-wazoo irregulars open fire on Israel villages, towns and cities whereupon Israel will hit back. [more]

The presence of Iran-funded and Iran-inspired Hizbullah is hardly new. A bevy of UN conventions, multilateral agreements and Lebanese undertakings mean nothing if we are thinking of disarmament and supervision (the UN's soldiers are told by the Hizbullah that they can't look in - and no one does anything about it). When Hizbullah decides it's time to open fire, there will be war, and Israel - which cannot absorb the mass damage that will follow from the firing of even parts of the vast Hizbullah arsenal of south-pointing rockets (an astounding 50,000 of them, according to a report this week) will have no military or political option other than to deliver devastation to the places from which Hizbullah is firing.

Israel's preoccupation with the existential threat that Hizbullah poses is not widely shared in Europe. Here's an extract from a long analysis published in the New York Times this past August:

Washington and Jerusalem insist that Hezbollah is an Iranian-backed terrorist organization with bloody hands, and that it is working closely with Tehran to train, arm and finance the Syrian military’s lethal repression of the uprising there. Yet, the European Union continues to treat it foremost as a Lebanese political and social movement... Israeli and American officials have attributed the Bulgarian bus bombing [July 2012] that killed six people, including five Israeli tourists, to Hezbollah and Iran... While the group is believed to operate all over the Continent, Germany is a center of activity, with 950 members and supporters last year, up from 900 in 2010 [according to] Germany’s domestic intelligence agency said in its annual threat report... Hezbollah has maintained a low profile in Europe since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, quietly holding meetings and raising money that goes to Lebanon, where officials use it for an array of activities — building schools and clinics, delivering social services and, Western intelligence agencies say, carrying out terrorist attacks. European security services keep tabs on the group’s political supporters, but experts say they are ineffective when it comes to tracking the sleeper cells that pose the most danger... The European Union’s unwillingness to place the group on its list of terrorist organizations is also complicating the West’s efforts to deal with the Bulgarian bus bombing and the Syrian conflict... Experts question how effectively European police officials are keeping track of the kind of serious, well-trained operatives capable of staging attacks versus counting up donors to funds for orphans of suicide bombers. “I don’t believe that they are able to monitor Hezbollah activities because Hezbollah is such a professional player,” said Guido Steinberg, an expert on terrorism with the German Institute for International and Security Affairs. “The supporters that march the streets with a Hezbollah flag are not a threat to national security,” Mr. Ritzmann said. “We’re more concerned with small groups — a car dealer, a grocer, or whatever, who operate in a traditional way like a sleeper cell would operate”... The perception gap across the Atlantic is so great that American officials sound more concerned about the threat posed by Hezbollah to Europe than the Europeans themselves. “We assess that Hezbollah could attack in Europe or elsewhere at any time with little or no warning,” said Daniel Benjamin, the State Department’s counterterrorism coordinator... Some experts say that security officials on the Continent are resistant to blacklisting the group because they seem to see a tacit détente, where Hezbollah does not stage attacks and European law enforcement officials do not interfere with its fund-raising and organizational work... “There’s a fear of attracting Hezbollah’s ire and eventually inviting Hezbollah operations in their own countries,” said Bruce Hoffman, a professor of security studies at Georgetown and a terrorism expert. “Why pick up a rock and see what’s under it?” he asked.

Here in Israel, keeping your head in the sand is seen as an unbearably expensive option.

25-Dec-12: Update on the Emirates scandal

Prof. Karabus in a friend's Abu Dhabi
apartment this month [Image Source]

For the outrageous events leading up to today, see "25-Dec-12: The Emirates scandal: the missing evidence turns up".

The background: this is about a distinguished medical specialist in his late seventies, emeritus professor at the University of Cape Town, who until his retirement spent years as head of the Oncology and Hematology unit at the Red Cross Children's Hospital in Capetown, South Africa.

He was arrested in August when he and family members passed through the glitzy Dubai airport transit terminal en route home to SA after taking part in a son's wedding in Canada. That was when he first learned that he had been secretly indicted a decade earlier over the death of a terminally-ill child patient during a brief locum he had done in an Emirate hospital. He had never been notified of the charges, nor of the conviction, and had obviously never been given the opportunity to defend himself. His conviction was set aside in August after some legal argument by his counsel, and the charges almost immediately reinstated. He is now on trial for manslaughter and forgery in an Abu Dhabi Sharia court. During the first eight weeks and one day of this sordid affair, he was locked up in a cell in the notorious Emirates prison called Al Wathba before finally being allowed out on bail (after multiple refusals) and on condition he pay a hefty security deposit to the authorities, which he did. He is now forbidden from leaving the UAE.

Today (Tuesday), an Abu Dhabi news report says

After weeks of delay, vital medical records in the case of manslaughter brought against a South African paediatric oncologist have finally been presented to court. Dr Cyril Karabus and his lawyers, Mohamed Al Sawan and Khalfan Al Kaabi, have long insisted the full medical history of the three-year-old Yemeni cancer patient be made available... Prosecutors had previously claimed the file did not exist, but today presented a second file of notes they now say was overlooked... The last party to hold the file was public prosecution, the judge said. He asked that they find the and present it to the court at the next hearing... The Abu Dhabi Criminal Court will reconvene on January 3.

We will post additional details as this United Arab Emirates nightmare continues to unfold.

Meanwhile, there's some sound advice in this South African Medical Association article for people traveling to the United Arab Emirates "in the naive belief that similar human rights protections to those they knew at home" will apply to them. It's information that Qantas might consider passing along to its passengers and customers.

25-Dec-12: The Emirates scandal: the missing evidence turns up

[Image Source]  

Here's an update on what the authorities in the United Arab Emirates have been doing for the past four months to an elderly South African paediatric cancer specialist caught up in a Kafkaesque legal/criminal nightmare. Readers not familiar with the background are invited to read our post of a week ago: "18-Dec-12: Astronomical financial power and what it lets some get away with".

A South African newspaper reports today that lawyers for Prof. Cyril Karabus - who spent eight weeks in a miserable UAE prison after being arrested in transit at Dubai airport when flying Emirates - say they have finally been given a key medical file which they had requested from the authorities and had been refused.

Now that they have it, they say it totally exonerates their client of all charges.

In this extraordinary and scandalous affair, the distinguished doctor faces manslaughter charges relating to the death of a Kuwaiti child who died in his care more than a decade ago, about which he was never told anything until his arrest. The matter comes back before an Abu Dhabi criminal judge later today.

Will Qantas, the great Australian airline, have an observer in the court room? If you are wondering why we ask, please read "15-Oct-12: Back to Dubai: Australian travelers might want to factor this report into their plans".

25-Dec-12: Know your barbarians

Frequent sight: Syrians line up to buy bread at an Aleppo bakery in August 2012 (Image Source: Youssef Boudlal/Reuters)

We posted yesterday about an attack on a Syrian bakery ["24-Dec-12: Peace on earth, chemical weapons and red lines"] by forces of the Syrian government. We'll add that bread is a staple of the Syrian diet. 

"Every Syrian consumes on average half a kilo (a pound) of wheat a day" ["Syria grain trade, bread shortage risk signals alarm for Assad", Alarabiya.com, May 27, 2012]

A New York Times report from yesterday says the al-Abbas regime has carried out 

indiscriminate attacks on or near bakeries in the past, especially in the northern city of Aleppo. In a three-week period in the summer, Human Rights Watch documented 10 separate bombings on bakeries in the city... [more]

The massacre this past Sunday took place in Halfaya where 

residents had lined up for bread after the town received its first flour delivery in days [NYT]

In August 2012, according to an HRW report, the al-Assad regime forces

dropped bombs and fired artillery at or near at least 10 bakeries in Aleppo province over the past three weeks, killing and maiming scores of civilians who were waiting for bread... One attack in the city of Aleppo on August 16, 2012, killed up to 60 people and wounded more than 70. Another attack in the city on August 21 killed at least 23 people and wounded 30.

It goes on to list the dates and places of the ten other bakeries. The statistics are mind-numbing. Could it be that killing their own civilians in breadlines is a matter of Syrian military/survival strategy? Consider the HRW evidence that 

government forces attacked the bakery when local residents were waiting in line. The ordnance, which included artillery shells, rockets, and bombs, hit very close to the lines, and pieces of shrapnel sprayed the people gathered, killing and seriously wounding scores of them... Witnesses to all of the bakery attacks told Human Rights Watch that the government gave no warnings. The 10 bakeries were in neighborhoods or towns where no fighting was taking place before or during the attack. In most cases, a few FSA fighters [the government's opponents] were at the bakeries to maintain order and assist with bread distribution, witnesses said, but they were usually not injured. [more]

Bombing your own hungry citizens while they stand in a breadline...  

If this were not about a savage father/son regime that has a track record of massacring its own citizens [here, here, here, here] we would have asked: How much lower can this go? But there's no point in asking.

24-Dec-12: Fell short? Not HRW

HRW press conference in Gaza, 2010 [Image Source]

We're mentioning Human Rights Watch for the second time today. We undertake not to make a habit of it.

HRW came out today with a report entitled "Gaza: Palestinian Rockets Unlawfully Targeted Israeli Civilians" [online here]. If the intention was to alert the world to something new and disturbing, it would be an outstanding example of too little, too late. Perhaps there was a more sophisticated strategy that we're just not getting.

Here's how it starts:

Palestinian armed groups in Gaza violated the laws of war during the November 2012 fighting by launching hundreds of rockets toward population centers in Israel. About 1,500 rockets were fired at Israel between November 14 and 21, the Israel Defense Forces reported. At least 800 struck Israel, including 60 that hit populated areas. The rocket attacks, including the first from Gaza to strike the Tel Aviv and Jerusalem areas, killed three Israeli civilians, wounded at least 38, several seriously, and destroyed civilian property. Rockets that fell short of their intended targets in Israel apparently killed at least two Palestinians in Gaza and wounded others, Human Rights Watch said.
“Palestinian armed groups made clear in their statements that harming civilians was their aim,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “There is simply no legal justification for launching rockets at populated areas... Statements by armed groups that they deliberately targeted an Israeli city or Israeli civilians are demonstrating their intent to commit war crimes.”

In the real world, as distinct from the fantasy-land routinely depicted in HRW's reflexive criticisms of (to an absurd extent) Israel, those rockets and those Palestinian statements and intentions have been a factor for years.

How HRW can find the courage (yes, there are probably more evocative, more accurate words than 'courage') to come out now, a month after this latest eruption of intense fighting and discover America and the barrage of Gazan rockets is something to think about. We mean, something for us to think about.

It's fairly plain that no one at HRW especially cares to view the ongoing deadly war waged by Palestinian terrorists under the leadership of the Hamas regime as something that deserves to be watched (to borrow from the organization's name), perhaps because HRW doesn't perceive any threat to the "Human Rights" (to borrow from the organization's name) of Israelis. Whatever.

But HRW's report, in our estimation and contrary to some of the analysis we are seeing this afternoon on the web, is not a complete and utter waste of time and insult to the insult and moral sensibilities of civilized people living in this area. No, not entirely. Because if you go down to paragraph 24, you see something novel and ground-breaking.

Some rockets launched by Palestinian armed groups fell short and struck inside Gaza. On November 16, a rocket that appears to have been launched from within Gaza hit a crowded street in the Gazan town of Jabalya, killing a man, 23, and a boy, 4, and wounding five people.

We have noted repeatedly the devastating effects of the Gazan Palestinian Arab use of their own neighbours, and especially children, as human shields. We have also written again and again (there's a summary in yesterday's post: ("23-Dec-12: The terrorist rocket-men of Gaza are back in action") about the deadly and almost entirely unreported phenomenon of terrorist "fell short" rockets. No one, as far as we can tell, other than Israelis and supporters of Israel makes a fuss of these Arab-on-Arab outrages, and certainly not via the news media. We say that unless outsiders know about, and therefore start to understand, the contempt which the Palestinian Arab terrorists have for their own brethren, children and neighbours, the essence of what they are doing will remain elusive and misunderstood.

So hooray for HRW. Their reporting cannot be considered an insult to the intelligence, and an ongoing offence to those of us holding rational views about terrorism and the people who do it. Not any more. Not since today. Not since paragraph 24 of the most recent HRW report.

24-Dec-12: Peace on earth, chemical weapons and red lines

Spiegel Online's July 2012 analysis of Syria's vast investment
in chemical weapons [Source]

Sunday, bloody Syrian Sunday.

Al Arabiya reports that "At least 300 killed in regime airstrike near Syrian bakery" though considerably smaller numbers are being reported elsewhere. Times of Israel adds that the Syrian government forces strike on Halfaya

"left scattered bodies and debris up and down a street, and more than a dozen dead and wounded were trapped in tangled heap of dirt and rubble. The attack appeared to be the government response to a newly announced rebel offensive seeking to drive the Syrian army from a constellation of towns and village north of the central city of Hama. Halfaya was the first of the area’s towns to be “liberated” by rebel fighters, and activists saw Sunday’s attack as payback."

Back to Al Arabiya which provides some context: 

"During the summer, rights groups accused government forces of committing war crimes by dropping bombs and using artillery on or near several bakeries in the northern province of Aleppo... [A witness said] “We hadn’t received flour in around three days so everyone was going to the bakery today, and lots of them were women and children...”

There are conflicting claims about who is using chemical weapons in the Syrian bloodbath. One source says the government. A second says it couldn't possibly be the government. A third says the opposition. None of the news is good, no matter which interpretation is right:

'Sarin-like gas' kills 7 in Homs

Source: Ynet quoting Al-JazeeraSeven people were killed in Homs' rebel-held neighborhood of al-Bayyada when they inhaled a poisonous gas sprayed by Syrian Army forces, opposition activists told Al-Jazeera early Monday. According to the activists, scores of others suffered from side effects, including nausea, relaxed muscles, blurred vision, and breathing difficulties. Residents said they did not know the nature of the gas sprayed. "The situation is very difficult. We do not have enough facemasks. We don't know what this gas is but medics are saying it's something similar to Sarin gas," Raji Rahmet Rabbou, an activist in Homs, told Al Jazeera. In a video posted online a man who inhaled the gas said, "I felt something within a few seconds. I felt my throat block up as I tried to breathe. I couldn't see; I was blinded. I felt that my muscles were relaxed. I was paralyzed. People had to carry me here."

Syria Unlikely to Use Chemical Weapons

Source: RIA Novosti      Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Monday that Syrian authorities are unlikely to use chemical weapons as it would be a "political suicide" for them. "I don’t believe Syria would use chemical weapons. It would be a political suicide for the government if it does," he said in an interview with the RT television network.

Syria militants use chemical weapons against Syrian forces

Source: One of the pro-Assad Iranian government's mouthpiece media outletsMilitants fighting against the Syrian government have used chemical weapons against the army in Daraya near the capital, Damascus, military sources say. According to a commander of the Syrian Presidential Guard, at least seven Syrian soldiers were killed on Saturday after they were attacked by a chemical weapon which produced a toxic yellow gas. The soldiers were reportedly killed within an hour after inhaling the gas. Foreign-backed militants have repeatedly threatened to use chemical weapons against the army and pro-government civilians in recent days. They have also threatened to contaminate Syria's drinking water supply in a bid to kill all Alawite Shias and the supporters of President Bashar al-Assad... The Syrian government has repeatedly said that the chaos is being orchestrated from outside the country, and that a very large number of the militants operating in the country are foreign nationals. 

As the Syrian bloodbath speeds past the 40,000-dead mark, keep in mind what the US government has said about chemical warfare in Syria. In August 2012, President Obama said [NY Times]:

“We cannot have a situation where chemical or biological weapons are falling into the hands of the wrong people... A red line for us is we start seeing a whole bunch of chemical weapons moving around or being utilized. That would change my calculus.”

At the beginning of December [source] 

"Today I want to make it absolutely clear to Assad and those under his command: The world is watching," he said on Monday. "The use of chemical weapons is and would be totally unacceptable and if you make the tragic mistake of using these weapons there will be consequences and you will be held accountable."

Very familiar with consequences, Israel officially believes (it appears) there is no immediate threat from the al-Assad regime. But is remaining watchful.

From Reuters:

Syria's chemical weapons are still secure despite the fact that President Bashar al-Assad has lost control of parts of the country, a senior Israeli defense official said on Sunday. Amos Gilad told Army Radio that the civil war between Assad and opposition forces fighting to topple him had become deadlocked, but that the Syrian leader showed no signs of heeding international calls to step down. 

But the doomsday possibility is not being ignored [Times of Israel]:

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday said Israel was carefully watching developments in Syria, and especially the regime’s sizable stockpile of chemical weapons, which Israeli officials are afraid could be turned against the Jewish state. “We’re taking steps in order to prepare for the far-reaching changes that are commencing there,” Netanyahu said at the opening of the weekly cabinet meeting, alluding to recent assessments that President Bashar Assad’s days in power were numbered. “There are dramatic developments in Syria on an almost daily basis... We’re taking the necessary steps to prepare ourselves...”

The best background analysis we have seen, far too long and detailed to reproduce here but filled with revelations, appeared on the website of the German news-magazine, Spiegel, this past July. Entitled "Israel's Red Line: Fate of Syrian Chemical Weapons May Trigger War", it is sufficiently dry and factual to totally ruin your day:

Syria probably started producing chemical weapons in the 1980s... They initially consisted of bombs that were filled with sarin gas and designed to be dropped by aircraft. Warheads for Scud missiles were also subsequently developed, and it's now believed that Syria has roughly 700 of these weapons. According to Israeli intelligence sources, most of the expertise came from the Soviet Union and the former Czechoslovakia, but private companies from Japan and Western Europe also reportedly aided the Syrians... In the mid-1990s, Syria reportedly managed to manufacture VX -- the most toxic nerve agent of all... The chemical-weapons depots are among the best-secured locations in all of Syria. Assad's army controls checkpoints on the access roads already kilometers before the gates, and the depots themselves are shielded by two ironclad rings of protective fences and guards. The troops who are responsible for guarding these facilities rank among the regime's loyalest supporters. One of the facilities lies northeast of Damascus, another near Homs, and a third -- where the nerve agents VX, sarin and tabun are allegedly manufactured -- is located near Hama... According to Jane's Intelligence Review, a British magazine focusing on global security issues, Iran has helped the Syrians with a number of these facilities. The production and storage facilities are operated by the Scientific Studies and Research Center, which employs over 10,000 people. Reports on the extent of the chemical arsenal vary widely, but conservative estimates obtained by the German government put it at roughly 1,000 metric tons.
Located in a valley some 20 kilometers southeast of Aleppo, the al-Safir complex is said to be the largest and most important chemical-weapons facility in all of Syria. A total of three production plants operate in an area that covers five square kilometers (two square miles). Sprinkler installations, a cooling system and two large underground tanks suggest that al-Safir is no ordinary military base. In its northeastern and northwestern corners, the grounds are protected by Russian-made anti-aircraft missiles, which are supposed to offer comprehensive protection against airstrikes. 

The legal position is pretty clear, by the way. Under customary international humanitarian law (binding on all States and on all parties to an armed conflict), the use of chemical weapons (and biological too) is prohibited. The prohibition is based [source]

on the ancient taboo against the use in war of "plague and poison" which has been passed down for generations in diverse cultures. It was most recently codified in the 1925 Geneva Protocol and subsequently in the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention and in the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention.

Under the Convention, thirteen states declared that they have chemical weapons production facilities. Unfortunately Syria is not one of them.