IAF strikes Palestinian Islamic Jihad headquarters in Damascus

The Israeli Air Force dropped hell on a Palestinian Islamic Jihad headquarters in Damascus Thursday, turning a quiet corner of the Dummar Project into a smoking crater. Senior jihadis—guys allegedly sketching out attacks on Israeli troops up along the northern border—were in the crosshairs, according to the suits in Jerusalem and whispers from Syrian street sources. 

This wasn’t a polite knock on the door; it was a message delivered in fire and steel.

A Syrian security guy, probably sweating through his knockoff Ray-Bans, told Reuters the bulls-eye was some “Palestinian figure.” Al-Hadath, the Saudi-backed news outfit, doubled down, saying a big-shot Palestinian official got the express ticket to paradise. 

Pictures from the scene? Think apocalyptic postcard—rubble, twisted metal, and smoke thick enough to choke a camel. Syrian press pegged the body count at eight but clammed up on the details. No names, no tears—just numbers. Jannah, here they come--get the goats ready.

Israel’s Defense Minister Israel Katz didn’t blink. “We ain’t letting these terror clowns set up shop in Syria,” he said, or something close enough. 

The IDF backed him up with their official line: “A short while ago, the IAF conducted an intelligence-based strike on a terrorist command center belonging to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror organization in Damascus. The command center was used to plan and direct terrorist activities by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad against the State of Israel.”

They didn’t stop there. “The IDF will not allow terrorist organizations to entrench themselves in Syrian territory and operate against the State of Israel, and will respond forcefully to any such entrenchment,” the statement growled. “The IDF will continue to act against Palestinian terrorist organizations wherever necessary and will continue to operate to protect the citizens of the State of Israel.” 

Translation? Mess with the bull, get the horns—anywhere, anytime.

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This isn't a one-off. Ever since Bashar Assad’s house of cards folded in December, Israel’s been playing whack-a-mole with Syria’s new jihadi overlords and their pals. Under President Ahmad al-Sharaa’s shiny new jihadist regime, Palestinian terror crews have been sniffing around for a foothold. Israel’s response? Bombs, not brunch invites. Thursday’s strike was just the latest chapter in a book that’s all blood, no happy endings.

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Days of fighting and revenge killings in Syria leave about 1,000 dead

The overall death toll including civilians in Syria between loyalists of chinless ousted Syrian President Bashar Assad and security forces has now exceeded 1,000, with the Syrian Observatory of Human Rights (SOHR) reporting a total of 1,311 deaths by March 10th. Specifically, security forces at 231; Assad loyalists at 250; and civilians up to 750, many killed in revenge attacks. 

Exact numbers depend on the source.

The clashes began Thursday and marked a major escalation in the challenge to the new government in Damascus, three months after insurgents took authority after removing Assad from power and had him fleeing to Russia for refuge.

The government has said that they were responding to attacks from remnants of Assad’s forces and blamed “individual actions” for the rampant violence. MSNBC and "The View" blamed it on Trump.

The revenge killings that started Friday by Sunni Muslim gunmen loyal to the government against members of Assad’s minority Alawite sect are a major blow to Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the faction that led the overthrow of the former government. Alawites made up a large part of Assad’s support base for decades.

Residents of Alawite villages and towns spoke to the Associated Press about killings whereby gunmen belonging to the "religion of peace" shot Alawites, mostly men, in the streets or at the gates of their homes. Many homes of Alawites were looted and then set on fire in different areas, two residents of Syria’s coastal region told the AP from their hideouts. These acts of terror appeared to resemble those of whoat Hamas did to Israelis on October 7, 2023, but without the rapes, beheadings, kidnappings, and immolation of women and children. 

Maybe it's a jihad thing.

Those in hiding asked that their names not be made public out of fear of being killed by gunmen, adding that thousands of people have fled to nearby mountains for safety.

Residents of Baniyas, one of the towns worst hit by the violence, reported that bodies were strewn on the streets or left unburied in homes and on the roofs of buildings, making it impossible to collect them. One resident said that the gunmen prevented residents for hours from removing the bodies of five of their neighbors killed Friday at close range.

Ali Sheha, a 57-year-old resident of Baniyas who fled with his family and neighbors hours after the violence broke out Friday, told the AP that at least 20 of his neighbors and colleagues in one neighborhood of Baniyas where Alawites lived, were killed, some of them in their shops, or in their homes.

Sheha called the attacks “revenge killings” of the Alawite minority for the crimes committed by Assad’s government. Other residents said the gunmen included foreign fighters, and militants from neighboring villages and towns.

SOHR said that 428 Alawites were killed in revenge attacks in addition to 120 pro-Assad fighters and 89 from security forces. The Observatory’s chief Rami Abdurrahman said that revenge killings stopped early Saturday.

“This was one of the biggest massacres during the Syrian conflict,” Abdurrahman said about the killings of Alawite civilians.

If they aren't killing Christians and Jews, they're killing each other.

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Ancient Damascus Synagogue reopens with Assad gone

The Joba Synagogue in Damascus has been a pilgrimage site since before the time of the Talmud.

With the fall of the Assad regime in Syria, the few Jews still living in the country can once again visit an ancient synagogue that had been off-limits, for some anti-Semitic reason, since the Syrian civil war started thirteen years ago.

Bakhour Chamntoub, who is 74 and leads the nine remaining members of the Jewish community in Syria, spoke to the AP about this. He said, "This synagogue means a lot to us," describing its former beauty with its marble columns, chandeliers, tapestries, and carpets. The community was once tens of thousands strong before the creation of Israel in 1948, but it dwindled due to persecution by the Arab regime.
Israel, 

Chamntoub mentioned that he never faced antisemitic discrimination personally, although he was open about his Jewish identity, saying he was proud of it. Before the war in 2011, he and other elderly Jews would often visit the Joba Synagogue, which a marble slab at its gate declared was built "720 years before Christ," making it one of the oldest Jewish places of worship in the world.

Now, the synagogue is mostly in ruins, with only a few walls standing and all its beautiful decorations looted. There was heavy fighting in this area during the war, and according to a 2013 report by Diarna.org, it was largely destroyed that year. The neighborhood was under rebel control until 2018 when the regime forces retook it, but access was still restricted until now.

Despite their Jihadist philosophy, the new rulers of Syria aim to appear moderate to the West, promising to protect minorities and allow religious freedom. Chamntoub noted that Jews from around the world have been contacting him, wanting to help rebuild the synagogue.

The synagogue, also known as the Eliyahu Hanavi (Elijah the Prophet) Synagogue, is legendary for being built where Elijah anointed Elisha as his successor during the Kingdom of Israel's era, when its borders included parts of modern-day Syria. It's said that Elijah hid from King Ahab in a cave here, and the synagogue was built over that spot.

Diarna’s report mentions, “A marble headstone” in the main sanctuary with inscriptions in Hebrew, Arabic, and French, affirming this story. Historical records also suggest that Roman King Titus, who destroyed the Second Temple in Jerusalem, also razed this synagogue. It was reconstructed in the first century and is mentioned in the Babylonian Talmud, compiled around 500 AD. It was destroyed again in the 1500s but rebuilt, always serving as a pilgrimage site due to its connection to the prophet Elijah.

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Bashar Assad's family arrested trying to fly out of Lebanon

If you're a member of Bashar Assad's family, even extended family, don't plan on going far. The wife and daughter of one of his cousins were arrested Friday at the Beirut airport as they tried to flee the country with forged [allegedly] passports, Lebanese judicial and security brass said. Assad's uncle, however, was able to get out of Dodge the previous day.

Rasha Khazem, who is married to Duraid Assad — the son of former Syrian Vice President Rifaat Assad, who is also the uncle of Bashar Assad — along with their daughter, Shams, were smuggled into Lebanon illegally. They were attempting to catch a flight to Egypt when they were caught, according to five Lebanese officials who know about the situation. They were then detained by Lebanese General Security. The officials noted that Rifaat Assad had left the country the day before using his real passport and wasn't stopped.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the case publicly and might be killed in an extraordinary way if they revealed their identities.

Rifaat Assad was indicted in March, charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity for allegedly ordering the murder and torture of Syrians four decades ago. Rifaat is the brother of Bashar's father, Hafez Assad, the former ruler of Syria. Rifaat led the artillery unit that shelled the Syrian city of Hama which killed thousands of his own country's people, earning him the nickname the "Butcher of Hama."

Jimmy Prince [RIP] the Butcher of Coney Island

Earlier this year, Rifaat Assad was indicted in Switzerland for war crimes and crimes against humanity in connection with Hama making his future look bleak and job opportunities hopeless.

Tens of thousands of Syrians are believed to have entered Lebanon illegally on the night of Assad’s fall earlier this month, when insurgent forces entered Damascus.

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Trump says of Mattis: 'He's sort of a Democrat' and might leave administration

In a "60 Minutes" interview host Lesley Stahl asked President Trump whether Secretary of Defense James Mattis might leave his administration just a few weeks since journalist Bob Woodward wrote in his book "Fear" that Mattis compared the POTUS to a "fifth-or-sixth-grader."

Trump responded, "Well, I don't know. He hasn't told me that."

"I have a very good relationship with him," Trump continued. "I had lunch with him two days ago. ...It could be that he is. I think he's sort of a Democrat, if you want to know the truth. But General Mattis is a good guy. We get along very well. He may leave. I mean, at some point, everybody leaves. Everybody. People leave. That's Washington."

Leave, leave, leave--everybody. They leave.

Regarding reports that the White House is in chaos, Trump called the claim "so false" and "fake news," adding, "I have people now on standby that will be phenomenal. They'll come into the administration.

"Yeah, other people will go, sure. We have a great Cabinet. There are some people I'm not happy with. I have some people that I'm not thrilled with. And I have other people that I'm beyond thrilled with."

He has people he's not happy with, nor thrilled with, but he has others that he's beyond thrilled with, which brings to mind many questions.

President Trump's repetitive comments came soon after U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley abruptly announced her resignation, to take effect at year's end. The left-leaning media  claimed the departure indicated an extraordinarily high number of high-level departures from the Trump administration, but after looking at the numbers, the nonprofit Brookings Institution found that previous administrations lost a similar number of top officials.

After chinless Syrian dictator Bashar Assad launched a chemical attack on Syrians in April of last year, Woodward's book claimed that Trump demanded Mattis launch an assassination attempt.

"Let's f**king kill him! Let's go in. Let's kill the f**king lot of them," Trump allegedly said. According to Woodward, Mattis told an aide, "We're not going  to do any of that. We're going to be much more measured."

Mattis, according to the book, was also caught by surprise while on vacation when Trump proposed a ban on transgender troops. Mattis, who opposed the policy, has since unveiled a policy much more aligned with Trump's requests, but several lawsuits have temporarily put a hold on enforcing it.

Mattis said in a statement that "the contemptuous words about the president attributed to me in Woodward's book were never uttered by me or in my presence."

Woodward is known to document "facts" that are uncorroborated. Kind of sounds like the Kavanaugh debacle. Trump openly wondered if Woodward is a "Dem operative." He also posted on Twitter in September calling his book a "con on the public."

Mattis worked as head of the U.S. Central Command under former President Barack Hussein Obama, replacing David Petraeus. Mattis openly disagreed with Trump on several issues, favoring the preservation of certain aspects of the Obama Iran nuclear deal. Trump had called that deal a "horrible, one-sided" giveaway, basically the worst deal any human being has ever made in the history of the world, and maybe even the universe. Mattis believed the deal included "robust" measures and overall, it helped our interests [like not dying in a blinding nuclear blast].

Mattis views NATO as an alliance that's key to maintaining international order, while Trump criticized member nations for not paying their fair share of their GDP for national defense.

Secretary Mattis was able to change Trump's mind in certain areas. He convinced POTUS to abandon his stated desire to torture terror detainees and also got him to send more troops to Afghanistan.

There are no overt indications that Mattis has been withdrawing from his normal duties, and he will be heading to Vietnam on Tuesday, where he will visit Ho Chi Minh City [aka: Saigon] as the administration is attempting to counter China's military assertiveness.

Some see the arrival of Deputy National Security Adviser Mira Ricardel to the White House in May, as a sign Trump is planning to fire Mattis after the midterms next month. Ricardel and Mattis have often sparred in the past.

Also, Trump's hiring of U.N. ambassador John Bolton as national security adviser is a sign Trump's shift to a more hardline stance than Mattis supports, shows that the president is looking to change tactics and may want Mattis to go.

"I heard you're actually the Devil incarnate and I wanted to meet you," Mattis told Bolton in an open mic exchange when they met at the Pentagon earlier in the year.

In September, Mattis downplayed reports that he'd be leaving the Defense Department.

But we shall see.


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Assad disses Trump over ISIS

Chinless President of Syria Bashar Assad (his friends call him "Bash Her Asshat") spoke out against President Trump saying thus far he's failed to show "anything concrete" toward his pledge to annihilate ISIS. The Syrian dictator also called U.S. forces inside his country "invaders."

"We haven't seen anything concrete yet regarding this rhetoric," he said in an interview published Saturday. "We have hopes that this administration . . . is going to implement what we have heard."

President Trump has only been in office about 50 days--can't anyone give him a break?

Part of the reason he won (besides the fact that he ran against one of the most disgusting, arrogant, deceitful and hated people on the planet) is his vow to defeat the Islamic State. When he took office January 20th he ordered his top military leaders to provide a plan within a month designed to defeat the terror group.

Assad belittled U.S.-backed military efforts saying they amounted to "only a few raids" [but that was under a weak, socialist U.S. president, however] however, "in theory" he remains optimistic about cooperating with the Trump administration along with the Syrian regime, he said in an interview with Chinese TV station Phoenix. The interview was posted on Syria's state-run 'fake news' agency SANA.

Republicans and others were critical of Obama when he refused to acknowledge "radical Islamic terrorism" and failed to follow through on his 2012 statement that Assad would cross a "red line" if he used chemical weapons on civilians after evidence of a chemical attack was apparent.

So while Obama had our military sit on their collective hands, ISIS grew like a giant butt-tumor in northern Syria and other remote regions in that country. 

The U.S. is now preparing to deploy about 400 additional troops to Syria along with the 500 already in the country. The intention is a multi-national effort to defeat the jihadists in their Raqqa stronghold.

Assad said, in that lisp he's known for, that Raqqa was "a priority" but "any foreign troops coming to Syria without our invitation or consultation or permission, they are invaders whether they are Americans, Turkish, or any other one. And we don't think this is going to help."


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Obama the Poseur POTUS

President Barack Hussein Obama did his one finger Shahada-like pointing as he announced that the U.S.-led coalition "will not relent" in the fight against ISIS and believes that they will be defeated.

He's probably correct, but the defeat of ISIS will be in spite of Obama, not because of his so-called leadership.

The way things currently are, 75% of the time our fighter planes return without dropping any of their ordnance. And the fact that we fly so few sorties each day is obvious proof that Obama is sitting this fight out, waiting for his replacement to take over the task. 

Obama spoke at the close of the ASEAN summit in Malaysia, pressing Russian President Vladmir Putin to go along with him in the U.S.-led coalition, especially now that ISIS has been fingered as the group responsible for bringing down a Russian passenger jet last month, which killed all 224 people on board.

"He needs to go after the people who killed Russia's citizens," Obama said, referring to Putin.

Putin should have responded with "Sure, I'll go after ISIS without joining your make-believe military actions, and maybe you can go after Iran for refusing to release your citizens, Comrade Obama. You draw red lines line dog crap draws flies."

Obama said Moscow has been focusing on the rebel forces who are fighting against Syrian President Bashar Assad, a new ally to Putin. He called on Putin to make a "strategic adjustment" and stop supporting the chinless dictator, saying that as long as he remains in power, the violence in Syria will continue.

For those who aren't familiar with the term "strategic adjustment," it is the opposite of "strategic patience." The former requires action, the latter requires sitting back while pretending that the act of sitting back is doing something. Obama champions the latter.

"It will not work to keep him in power," Obama whined. "We can't stop the fighting."

Putin could very well have replied: "Comrade Obama, you drew that red line and you allowed Bashar to cross it. If you had the testicles you would have stopped him from gassing his people and your leftist followers would have a legitimate cause to take in those so-called refugees. But you chickened out and now you want Russia to clean up your mess. You better call on your Muslim Brotherhood friends and get them to help you out of this jam."

French President Francois Hollande will meet with Obama on Tuesday at the White House to discuss ways to fortify the fight against ISIS. But Hollande is smart enough to know that little effort will come from Obama because ISIS isn't part of the GOP, therefore, he will also meet with Putin in Moscow.


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Iran accepts invite to Vienna waltz

Boots not exactly on the ground

If past calculations reflect today's cost, it will take $5 billion to send 50 U.S. ground troops to Syria for the war against ISIS, aka Islamic State (although they aren't Islamic if you believe Obama, who denies he is too). However, it likely will not cost the taxpayer that much to send in the troops, but it isn't going to be cheap.

The U.S. disclosed plans Friday to station fewer than 50 soldiers in northern Syria to serve as advisers to groups fighting the militants. They will suggest such things as "Shoot him, that guy over there," and "Now that you pulled the pin, throw the damn thing."

Washington announced the mini-operation force just before 17 nations, the European Union and the UN called for a nationwide truce in the Syrian civil war at talks in Vienna. This was attended for the first time since the start of the conflict in 2011 by Iran, the BFF of Bashar Assad.

In a rare pretense of diplomatic progress, Iran implied it would support a six-month political transition period in Syria followed by elections to decide if Assad stays or goes. Those opposed to the chinless scumcrumpet rejected the idea of an election believing it is a trick to keep him in power. 

Gee, I cannot imagine why those opposed to a brutal dictator would think he would rig an election.

Fun Fact: nobody is currently certain which rebel groups are terrorists and which should be included in the political process. Coin flip to follow.

Josh Earnest, who rarely is, said the special forces' mission would be to "train, advise and assist" local groups. "I think if we were envisioning a combat operation, we probably would be contemplating more than 50 troops on the ground," Earnest added.

Ironically, in spite of the fact that this is not a combat operation, the troops will be armed and dangerous, and politicians like Earnest will earnestly avoid hanging out in Syria.

I do not remember any other administration who had played with words in such a schizophrenic way as the Obama administration.


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