Watchman Newsletter

24 Signs That We Are Getting Dangerously Close To A Major War In The Middle East

The American Dream (Link) (February 6, 2012)

Is 2012 the year when we will see a major war in the Middle East? For years we have heard about rising tensions in the Middle East, and for years we have heard politicians express concerns about Iran’s nuclear program, but now things really do seem to be reaching a boiling point. In just the past few days, the U.S. government has imposed tough new sanctions on Iran and has totally shut down the U.S. embassy in Syria.

The truth is that we are getting dangerously close to a major war in the Middle East. So will Israel strike Iran at some point in the next few months? Will the U.S. military intervene in the rapidly escalating conflict inside of Syria? If a major war does erupt, it could send the price of oil skyrocketing and there is the potential that the war could broaden very quickly.

Hezbollah has already indicated that it will side with Syria, and there is always the potential that Hamas could as well. Russia and China have both stated that they are completely opposed to military action by the United States against Iran and Syria, and they have even hinted that they would possibly even help defend those countries. As the nations of the world take sides, there is even the potential that we could see World War III develop. Let us hope that it never comes to that, but with the world as unstable as it is right now, you never know what may happen.

What makes war so much more likely now is that nobody has shown any signs of backing down.

Syrian ‘chemical, biological’ weapons concern Israel

YNet News (Link) - AFP (January 17, 2012)

Israel has serious concerns about what will happen to “huge stockpiles” of chemical and biological weapons in Syria when the Assad regime collapses, a senior military official said on Tuesday.

Major-General Amir Eshel, head of the Israeli military’s planning division, said the working assumption was the regime of President Bashar Assad would eventually fall.

“The question is when, not if. And the big question is what’s going to come the day after,” he said.

“The immediate concern is the huge stockpiles of chemicals, biologicals (weapons), strategic capabilities that are still going into Syria, mainly from eastern Europe,” Eshel said.

“That’s a major concern because I don’t know who is going to own those the day after. Up till now, what has been transferred to Hezbollah? What will be transferred to Hezbollah? What will be divided between those factions inside Syria? What is that going to create?

“We are talking about huge stockpiles,” he said.

Libyan weapons flowing to terrorists: Israeli prime minister warns about missile threat

Klein Online (Link) - Aaron Klein (January 16, 2012)

Libyan weapons are being smuggled into the Gaza Strip through the Egyptian Sinai Peninsula, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned yesterday.

Addressing the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, Netanyahu warned “Libyan arms continue to flow into Gaza through Sinai.” He indicated that there were “more than 10,000 missiles” in Gaza, some of which had a range “surpassing 40 kilometres (24 miles).”

Just last week, KleinOnline was first to report Libyan rebels are selling large quantities of weaponry to Palestinian terrorist groups in the Gaza Strip, according to Israeli security sources.

The sources noted the weapons were seized after the regime of late Libyan leader Moammar Qadhafi was toppled by rebel fighters with help from the U.S-led NATO bombing campaign.

The weapons include French and Saudi munitions and equipment seized by the rebel gangs, the sources said.

The weapons are being sold to the Gazan groups Hamas, the Iranian-backed Islamic Jihad, the Popular Resistance Committees and the al-Qaida-affiliated Jihadiya Salafia, said the sources.

Hamas: Vote for us, we kill more Jews!

Israel Today (Link) - Ryan Jones (December 15, 2011)

Hamas on Wednesday marked its 24th anniversary by playing up how many Jews it has managed to murder. The highly publicized event (and grisly casualty figures) came just months before Palestinians are scheduled to go to the polls to elect a new parliament and president.

In an official statement Hamas’ military wing, the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, boasted of killing 1,365 Israelis and wounding another 6,411 in 1,117 terror attacks over the past two decades. The group also noted that it had fired over 11,000 rockets and missiles from Gaza into southern Israel.

Hours later, tens of thousands of Palestinians gathered in Gaza City to celebrate Hamas’ founding and its successes against the hated Jews of Israel. Speakers at the event reiterated Hamas’ dedication to eliminating Israel, and decried ongoing Middle East peace negotiations as a failed experiment.

Many in Israel saw the public event as the start of Hamas’ campaign for the next legislative and presidential election, which Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas recently announced would take place in May 2012.

Hamas leaders expect to score another landslide victory when next the Palestinians go to the polls. The 2006 Palestinian election produced a surprise Hamas takeover of the Palestinian parliament, a result that left clueless Western diplomats baffled.

If recent electoral results in Egypt are any indication, the general sentiment on the street has only drifted closer to the Islamist viewpoint in the intervening years. †

UN Says More than 5,000 Believed Killed in Syria

The Mideast Update (Link) - Joshua Spurlock (December 13, 2011)

The United Nations again reported a substantial increase in the number of those killed in the ongoing violence against the opposition in Syria, upping the death toll to more than 5,000. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said on Monday that “credible reports from a variety of sources received by my office indicate that the total number of people killed [in Syria] since the protests began in March now probably exceeds 5,000,” according to a report on the website for the Office of the High Commissioner.

The Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad has brutally repressed the opposition protest movement that began in March, reportedly using the Syrian military to open fire on its own citizens.

Pillay said the death total includes both civilians and soldiers who have defected from the regime or refused to shoot civilians. Ambassador Rosemary A. DiCarlo, the US deputy permanent representative to the UN, pointed out the number of those killed has risen by 3,000 in a matter of months.

“Almost four months ago the death toll was then at 2,000. It’s now around 5,000,” DiCarlo was quoted by a press release as saying. “So it’s more than doubled in the past four months.”

New Gaza Incursion in the Offing?

The Media Line (Link) - Arieh O’Sullivan (December 12, 2011)

After a volatile weekend of rocket fire and air strikes, a senior Israeli military commander warned on Monday that a military incursion against the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip is inevitable.

“I think that we can’t avoid another confrontation,” said Col. Yonatan Branski, deputy commander of the Gaza Division. “There are a lot of weapons inside the Gaza Strip. There are terror groups and they try to hit civilians. They do it all of the time. Just in the past days we have had 39 rockets and mortar shells fired into Israeli territory trying to hit Israeli civilians. Of course, that’s something we cannot [allow]. I guess there will be a confrontation. When and where exactly I can’t say.”

Speaking at the spot where Palestinians fired a rocket into a yellow school bus in April, killing one student, Branski told foreign reporters that the three years since Israel’s last incursion into the Gaza Strip during Operation Cast Lead were used by Hamas to double its arsenal and bolster its forces.

“Our duty as an army is to be ready all the time for every kind of operation. If there’s an escalation we are ready for it and we know exactly what to do and where to hit the Hamas and the other terror groups in the Gaza Strip.

Israeli conflict becomes major issue in GOP debate

WorldNet Daily (Link) - Drew Zahn (December 11, 2011)

Earlier this week, Newt Gingrich told an Isreali TV station the Palestinians are an “invented” people out to destroy Israel, a statement that prompted significant disagreement between the candidates in this weekend’s GOP debate on whether it is better to exercise “truth” or “prudence” in the Middle East.

When asked about the comment, Gingrich was completely unapologetic for his controversial remarks.

“Somebody ought to have the courage to tell the truth,” Gingrich insisted. “[The Palestinian power groups Fatah and Hamas] are terrorists. They teach terrorism in their schools. They have textbooks that say, ‘If there are 13 Jews and 9 Jews are killed, how many Jews are left?’ We pay for those textbooks through our aid money. It’s fundamentally time for somebody to have the guts to stand up and say, ‘Enough lying about the Middle East.’”

He went on to say, “Is what I said factually correct? Yes. Is it historically true? Yes. … The fact is, the Palestinian claim to a right of return is based on a historically false story. Somebody ought to have the courage to go all the way back to the 1921 League of Nations mandate for a Jewish homeland, point out the context in which Israel came into existence, and ‘Palestinian’ did not become a common term until after 1977. This is a propaganda war in which our side refuses to engage. … You’re not going to win in the long run if you’re afraid to stand firm and stand for the truth.”

Arab Spring begins weeding out Christians

WorldNet Daily (Link) (December 10, 2011)

Islamic factions jockeying for position from out of the ashes of the Arab Spring are posing an increased threat to Middle East Christians, an international human rights group contends.

The British group Barnabas Aid says that Christians in Iran and Azerbaijan are coming under increased pressure from their governments.

Barnabas Aid wrote in its December prayer alert that there is cause for concern for Iran’s persecuted believers, because Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei recently urged more than 2.5 million Muslims on a pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia to form “an international Islamic power bloc.”

The Ayatollah Khamenei told the listeners the Arab Spring was guided by Islam and said Muslims worldwide should rally to the Islamic cause.

The prayer alert also said the Iranian leader called on Muslims “to make the most of the opportunity” created by the Arab Spring, as well as the anti-capitalist “Occupy” movement across the world.

“Cataloguing Palestinian Duplicity”

Palestinian Media Watch (Link) (December 9, 2011)

“Just this week an important new book [Deception] arrived that details in exhaustive fashion the duplicity of the PA, under President Mahmoud Abbas, in speaking to the West of its recognition of Israel while at the same time spreading hate speech and glorifying terrorists at home.” [The Jewish Week, Dec. 6, 2011]

Palestinian Media Watch director Itamar Marcus, Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel, and human rights leader Robert L. Bernstein hosted a press conference Tuesday launching Deception: Betraying the Peace Process.

Authors Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik document numerous breaches in the Palestinian Authority’s commitments to recognize Israel, to cease hate incitement and to reject violence and terror - requirements established by the international community and accepted by the PA.

The authors and human rights leaders warned that the hate speech and incitement against Israel by PA leaders is the fundamental impediment to achieving peace.

Egypt and the Idealist-Realist Debate in U.S. Foreign Policy

Stratfor Global Intelligence (Link) - George Friedman (December 6, 2011)

The first round of Egyptian parliamentary elections has taken place, and the winners were two Islamist parties. The Islamists themselves are split between more extreme and more moderate factions, but it is clear that the secularists who dominated the demonstrations and who were the focus of the Arab Spring narrative made a poor showing. Of the three broad power blocs in Egypt — the military, the Islamists and the secular democrats — the last proved the weakest.

It is far from clear what will happen in Egypt now. The military remains unified and powerful, and it is unclear how much actual power it is prepared to cede or whether it will be forced to cede it. What is clear is that the faction championed by Western governments and the media will now have to accept the Islamist agenda, back the military or fade into irrelevance.

One of the points I made during the height of the Arab Spring was that the West should be careful of what it wishes for — it might get it. Democracy does not always bring secular democrats to power. To be more precise, democracy might yield a popular government, but the assumption that that government will support a liberal democratic constitution that conceives of human rights in the European or American sense is by no means certain. Unrest does not always lead to a revolution, a revolution does not always lead to a democracy, and a democracy does not always lead to a European- or American-style constitution.

Israel and Syria brace for regional war between mid-Dec. 2011 and mid-Jan 2012

DEBKAfile (Link) (December 5, 2011)

The actions and words of Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Syrian ruler Bashar Assad in the last 72 hours indicate they are poised for a regional war, including an attack on Iran, for some time between December 2011 and January 2012.

In their different ways, both have posted road signs to the fast-approaching conflict as DEBKAfile’s Middle East sources disclose:

1. Saturday, Dec. 3, Syria staged a large-scale military exercise in the eastern town of Palmyra, which was interpreted by Western and Israeli pundits as notice to its neighbors, primarily Turkey and Israel, that the uprising against the Assad regime had not fractured its sophisticated missile capabilities.

DEBKAfile’s military sources advise attaching more credibility to the official Damascus statement of Sunday, Dec. 4: “The Syrian army has staged a live-fire drill in the eastern part of the country under war-like circumstances with the aim of testing its missile weaponry in confronting any attack.”

Israel deploys three armored units on northern border

World Tribune (Link) (December 2, 2011)

Israel has sent additional forces to its borders with Lebanon and Syria.

The Saudi-owned Al Hayat daily, quoting Israeli security sources, said the deployment was meant to counter any attack from its northern neighbors amid increasing international pressure on Iran, Syria and Hizbullah.

“Israel has decided to deploy three armored units at its northern border with Syria and Lebanon in fear that Arab economic sanctions on Syria would inflame the region,” Al Hayat said.

In a report on Nov. 28, the London-based daily said Israel has joined six other Middle East countries that have raised their military preparedness in wake of Arab and Western sanctions on the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad. Al Hayat said Israel was retaining the option of sending additional military units to the Syrian border.

“It also has stepped up its work to complete the security fence surrounding the Syrian border and digging trenches,” Al Hayat said.

Egypt’s Christians Have Strong Showing at Elections, But Fear Islamic Win

The Christian Post (Link) - Katherine Weber (November 30, 2011)

Although Egypt’s parliamentary elections were expected to be Muslim-dominated, Christians turned out in large numbers Monday and Tuesday to balance the vote in their favor. Although the results of the post-revolution elections will not be known for weeks, many are concerned the Muslim Brotherhood could end up dominating the government.

According to The Associated Press, many Christians voted for the Egyptian Bloc, represented on the voting ballot by the image of an eye.

The Egyptian Bloc was “discreetly” promoted by Egypt’s Coptic Church among followers, encouraging them to vote for this “alliance of leftist and liberal parties sponsored by a Christian tycoon,” according to AP.

As of Wednesday morning, the Muslim Brotherhood party claimed its lead in the elections. Others, including the smaller Justice Party, disputed these claims. The true results will only be final after the six-week voting process is complete.

The Associated Press contends that the Coptic Church quietly supports the liberal Egyptian Bloc, but Coptic Christian Bishop Moussa issued a statement Tuesday saying that the church is uninvolved with the country’s politics.

Clinton presses Netanyahu to release frozen Palestinian tax funds

Haaretz (Link) - Barak Ravid (November 23, 2011)

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton phoned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Monday night and demanded that he release Palestinian tax revenue that Israel has frozen for more than a month after UNESCO accepted the Palestinians as a member.

A senior U.S. official and an Israeli source familiar with details of the conversation say Clinton called Netanyahu after messages relayed to him in recent weeks on the tax money were not answered positively.

The Prime Minister’s Office confirmed that Clinton called but said the subject was new sanctions that the United States would impose on Iran.

Israel holds $100 million in Palestinian Authority tax revenue collected in October as part of economic agreements between the two sides. Should the freeze continue through the end of November, the sum will reach $200 million.

According to the Israeli source, Netanyahu rejected Clinton’s request, saying he lacks a majority in the cabinet on the issue.

Brussels: The New Capital of Eurabia

Hudson New York (Link) - Soeren Kern (November 22, 2011)

Muslims now make up one-quarter of the population of Brussels, according to a new book published by the Catholic University of Leuven, the top French-language university in Belgium.

In real terms, the number of Muslims in Brussels -- where half of the number of Muslims in Belgium currently live --- has reached 300,000, which means that the self-styled “Capital of Europe” is now the most Islamic city in Europe.

In practical terms, Islam mobilizes more people in Brussels than do the Roman Catholic Church, political parties or even trade unions, according to “The Iris and the Crescent,” a book that is the product of more than one year of field research and was released to the public on November 18.

The book’s author, the sociologist Felice Dassetto, predicts that Muslims will comprise the majority of the population of Brussels by 2030.

In Belgium as a whole, Muslims comprise roughly 6% of the total population, one of the highest rates in Europe. This number is expected to rise to more than 10% by 2020.

Abbas Going for Broke, Gunning for Unity with Hamas

Israel National News (Link) - Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu (November 20, 2011)

Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas is to meet with Hamas leaders in Cairo Thursday to sum up a unity deal based on “resistance,” a Palestinian Authority state based on the temporary 1949 Armistice Lines and non-recognition of Israel.

Abbas, head of the rival Fatah faction, formally signed a formal unity agreement with Hamas in May, but it quickly became nothing more than a ceremonial act following disagreements.

The failure of the Palestinian Authority to gain admittance as a full member in the United Nations has been a game-changer. Following the American and Israel decision to cut off funds to the PA after it won membership on the U.N.’s UNESCO agency, Abbas has made it clear he considers the Obama administration an obstacle to his plans for Palestinian Authority statehood.

Spokesmen for Hamas and Abbas have confirmed this week’s meeting will be full of substance as Abbas had apparently decided to bank on Asian and pro-Arab countries in Europe to give him the diplomatic backing he has lost with the United States.

R.I.P. to the Middle East ‘Peace Process’

Big Peace (Link) - Rob Miller (November 15, 2011)

The so-called Middle East peace process between the Israelis and the “Palestinians” is essentially dead, and it will be quite some time before there’s an attempt to revive it.

Israeli statesman Abba Eban’s famous quote about the “Palestinians” never missing an opportunity to miss an opportunity has come true once more, although in fairness they had a large assist this time from President Obama.

Mahmoud Abbas has once again refused to enter direct negotiations with Israel, telling new US envoy David Hale that the Palestinians would not return to the negotiating table with Israel unless the Israeli government met the preconditions of freezing all construction in what the “Palestinians” consider settlements, including East Jerusalem and accepting the pre-1967 cease fire lines as the basis for future borders in any two state solution.

In other words, Abbas is willing to sit down with the Israelis only if there’s nothing much left to negotiate. This is roughly the equivalent of agreeing to go to Las Vegas and place a bet on the roulette wheel only if your winnings are guaranteed in advance.

Nigeria’s Christian Persecution

FrontPage Magazine (Link) - Frank Crimi (November 14, 2011)

Boko Haram’s recent attack on the Nigerian city of Damaturu was but the latest and most deadly incident in the ongoing genocidal assault against Nigerian Christians.

In its efforts to impose Sharia law throughout Nigeria, the Islamist terror group Boko Haram has systematically targeted Nigerian government officials, Christians and those Muslims who dare to publicly denigrate the terrorist organization.

To that end, over 200 Boko Haram insurgents recently descended on the northeastern Nigerian city of Damaturu and engaged in a raging four hour gun and bombing attack with Nigerian police, a battle that resulted in nearly 150 deaths and the destruction of churches, mosques and police stations.

However, reports from Damaturu, capital of the Nigerian state of Yobe, indicate that the intent of the attack was specifically designed to target and kill Christian residents of the city. Of the nearly 150 people killed, at least 130 of were reported to be Christian.

Arab League Suspension Intensifies Pressure on Syria

The Mideast Update (Link) - Joshua Spurlock (November 13, 2011)

The Arab League placed the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad under some of its harshest diplomatic pressure yet over the violent Syrian crackdown on protesters, with plans to suspend Syria’s activities in the League and calls for Arab nations to remove their ambassadors from Damascus. According to the Lebanese newspaper The Daily Star, the Arab League foreign minister’s meeting also accepted the concept of sanctions, but did not go into detail. The newspaper said the Arab League decision, which was accepted by 18 of the 22 Arab state members on Saturday [November 12], suspends the activities of Syria’s representatives effective November 16 until Syria implements the League’s plan for resolving the protester situation.

The League also wants to meet with the Syrian opposition this week to outline a “joint vision for the coming transitional period in Syria.” They have not yet decided whether or not to recognize the opposition.

The strong Arab League step against one of its members follows continued Syrian violence—even after the Assad government accepted the League plan for resolving the conflict on November 2.

Report: Hizbullah preparing missile war on Israel as Iran braces for attack

World Tribune (Link) (November 3, 2011)

The Iranian-sponsored Hizbullah is planning for war with Israel, a report said.

The Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs asserted that Hizbullah secretary-general Hassan Nasrallah, in coordination with Teheran, has been meeting senior commanders to plan for war with the Jewish state. The center, in a report by Shimon Shapira, said Nasrallah has ordered his commanders to prepare for long-range missile attacks that would target Tel Aviv and other major Israeli cities.

“Nasrallah’s recent escalation of public statements stems from heightened fear in Hizbullah that an Israeli and/or American attack on Iran is drawing nearer,” the report said. “As a strategic arm of Iran, Hizbullah sees itself as Iran’s first line of defense against Israel.”

“Hizbullah forces are being trained to fire at least 10,000 missiles, right at the war’s outset, at military and strategic targets such as airfields, military camps, and vital facilities including maritime ones, followed by the firing of rockets from launch sites whose location will come as a surprise to Israel,” the report, titled “Hizbullah Discusses Its Operational Plan for War with Israel,” said.

Steel On Steel Persecution Update

Steel on Steel - Donald McElvaney (October 23, 2011)

1. Hard-line Muslims in Egypt Attack Coptic Church, Homes

2. Why Is Islamic Extremism Growing in Indonesia?

3. Progress in Pakistani Rape Case, but Alleged Victim’s Father Dies

4. Pakistani Muslims Fire on Christians in Land-Grab, Killing One

5. Maldives Arrests, Deports Indian Teacher for Owning Bible

6. Pakistani Mother Condemned for ‘Blasphemy’ Allegedly Beaten

7. Islamic Extremists in Somalia Behead 17-year-old Christian

Steel On Steel Persecution Update

Steel on Steel - Donald McElvaney (September 27, 2011)

1. Iranian Authorities Free Christian after Year in Prison

2. Christians Live in Cloud of Fear in Zanzibar, Tanzania

3. Iranian Christian Pays for Faith with 105 Days in Evin Prison

4. Christian Nurse in Pakistan Boldly Opts to Report Videotaped Rape

5. Christians in Bhutan Seek to Dispel Regime’s Mistrust

6. Somali Convert to Christianity Kidnapped, Beheaded

7. Muslim Extremists in Sudan Threaten to Target Christians

8. Messianic Jews Singled Out in Israeli Town

Steel On Steel Persecution Update

Steel on Steel - Donald McElvaney (September 16, 2011)

1. Nepal’s Churches Live under Threat, Discrimination

2. Church Building in North Sudan in Ruins as Hostilities Grow

3. Nigerian Army Said to Help in Slaughter of Christians

4. Church Leaders in Bangladesh Beaten at Police Station

5. Turkey Overturns Historic Religious Property Seizures

6. Two Pakistani Christians Seriously Injured for Refusing Islam

7. Muslim Extremists from Niger Help Kill Christians in Nigeria

8. Christians in China Suffer for Supporting Shouwang Church

IDF Home Front Command: Likelihood of all-out Middle East war increasing

Haaretz (Link) (September 5, 2011)

The likelihood of an all-out regional war in the Middle East is increasing, the head of the IDF Home Front Command said on Monday, Channel 10 reported.

Speaking to the Institute for National Security Studies, Major General Eyal Eisenberg said that such a conflict could potentially include the use of weapons of mass destruction.

Eisenberg cautioned that the Arab Spring could turn into the “Radical Islamic Winter.”

Eisenberg also noted that a new weapon was used by Gaza militants in the recent round of escalation in the south, which led the Home Front Command to instruct the public to seek shelter under two roofs, rather than one. †

Turkey-Israel ties fall to new low in response to UN flotilla report

Christian Science Monitor (Link) - Ariel Zirulnick (September 2, 2011)

Turkey-Israel relations dipped to a new low today over a long-awaited United Nations report on the Gaza flotilla debacle, freezing a key regional alliance despite more than a year of attempts to resuscitate ties.

Turkey announced today that it is expelling Israel’s ambassador and suspending all joint military agreements after failing to secure a formal apology from Israel for the deaths of eight Turks and one Turkish-American on May 31, 2010, when Israeli commandos boarded the Mavi Marmara, the flagship of the flotilla.

The convoy of ships had been seeking to break Israel’s naval blockade of Gaza, which Israel said was necessary to prevent the Islamist militant group Hamas from obtaining weapons but which many in the international community had objected to on humanitarian grounds.

The UN report, due to be formally released today but leaked yesterday by The New York Times, surprised many by declaring Israel’s blockade of Gaza as legal. While it criticized Israeli commandos for using “excessive and unreasonable” force in halting the mainly Turkish flotilla, it requested merely that Israel “express regret” for the deaths and pay unspecified reparations to the families, the Times reported.

Syria’s attorney-general ‘resigns over mass execution in Hama’

The Telegraph (Link) - Barney Henderson (August 31, 2011)

Syria’s attorney-general has resigned after witnessing a mass execution of 72 prisoners in one day and over four hundred bodies being buried in public parks, according to a video statement posted online on Wednesday night.

In the video, the man, thought to be Adnan Bakkour, the country’s leading legal official, said he was resigning because of the “al-Assad regime and his gangs.”

The state news agency reported on Monday that Mr Bakkour had been kidnapped by rebel gunmen in the village of Karnaz on his way to work in the central city of Hama.

Mr Bakkour says in the video that he saw the killing of 72 prisoners at Hama’s central prison on July 31, including peaceful protesters.

He says 420 bodies were buried in mass graves in public parks, that 10,000 peaceful protesters are being held in prisons and that 320 prisoners died after being tortured.

He claims that troops loyal to President Bashar al-Assad buried people alive by demolishing homes in Hama with people inside. He then named “criminals” who had assassinated unarmed protesters.

Report: Israel sends 2 warships to Egyptian border

YNet News (Link) - Dudi Cohen, AP and AFP  (August 30, 2011)

The Israeli Navy (INF) has decided to boost its presence and patrols near Israel’s maritime border with Egypt due to a viable terror threat in the area, as Iran announced it was set to send its 15th fleet to the Red Sea as well to “convey message of peace and friendship to all countries.”

Israeli security sources told the Associated Press on Tuesday that two additional warships have been dispatched to Israel’s Red Sea border with Egypt. Another source said that the operation was routine, telling Reuters that “two naval craft have been sent to the Red Sea. This is not unusual.”

On Monday, IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen Benny Gantz ordered that deployment across the entire southern sector be bolstered, especially in the area near the Israel-Egypt border, following intelligence indicating an imminent threat.

Steel On Steel Persecution Update

Steel on Steel - Donald McElvaney (August 24, 2011)

1. Christian Accused of ‘Blasphemy’ in Pakistan Granted Rare Bail

2. Many of Pakistan’s Christian Flood Victims Still Homeless

3. Motives for Church Burnings in Indonesia Questioned

4. Insurgent Blast Ravages Church Building in Iraq

5. Christians in Bangladesh Cleared of Charge of Offending Muslims

6. Mayor in Indonesia Again Balks at Granting Church Permit

7. Girl in Uganda Loses Use of Legs after Leaving Islam for Christ

8. Coptic Christian Killed in Attack on Village in Upper Egypt

Why this is the moment Libya’s Islamic extremists have prayed for

Daily Mail (Link) - John R. Bradley (August 23, 2011)

As Tripoli fell to anti-Gaddafi rebel forces, the euphoria that erupted in some parts of the city was matched only by that which broke out among Middle East pundits in the West.

The fall of the Libyan capital represents a clear victory for freedom over tyranny, they tell us, and a new country — defined by an enthusiastic embrace of democracy, pluralism and representative government — will emerge.

However, we have been here twice before in the Middle East in recent months. First, when Tunisia’s strongman, Zine El-Abidene Ben Ali, fled Tunis, and then when Egypt’s dictator Hosni Mubarak vacated the presidential palace in Cairo.

Seven months on, both countries are as authoritarian as ever. The Islamists have hijacked the popular uprisings there. And little evidence of a popular thirst for democracy can be found.

In Tunisia, a paltry 16 per cent of eligible voters had bothered to register before an initial deadline for doing so passed last month.

Israeli-Arab Crisis Approaching

Stratfor Global Intelligence (Link) - George Friedman (August 22, 2011)

In September, the U.N. General Assembly will vote on whether to recognize Palestine as an independent and sovereign state with full rights in the United Nations. In many ways, this would appear to be a reasonable and logical step. Whatever the Palestinians once were, they are clearly a nation in the simplest and most important sense — namely, they think of themselves as a nation. Nations are created by historical circumstances, and those circumstances have given rise to a Palestinian nation. Under the principle of the United Nations and the theory of the right to national self-determination, which is the moral foundation of the modern theory of nationalism, a nation has a right to a state, and that state has a place in the family of nations. In this sense, the U.N. vote will be unexceptional.

However, when the United Nations votes on Palestinian statehood, it will intersect with other realities and other historical processes. First, it is one thing to declare a Palestinian state; it is quite another thing to create one. The Palestinians are deeply divided between two views of what the Palestinian nation ought to be, a division not easily overcome. Second, this vote will come at a time when two of Israel’s neighbors are coping with their own internal issues. Syria is in chaos, with an extended and significant resistance against the regime having emerged. Meanwhile, Egypt is struggling with internal tension over the fall of President Hosni Mubarak and the future of the military junta that replaced him. Add to this the U.S. withdrawal from Iraq and the potential rise of Iranian power, and the potential recognition of a Palestinian state — while perfectly logical in an abstract sense — becomes an event that can force a regional crisis in the midst of ongoing regional crises. It thus is a vote that could have significant consequences.