Thurs. 19 May. 2011
TIME MAGAZINE
Ø Has the Regime Turned a Corner Against the Protests?...... 1
RIA NOVOSTI
Ø Call for general strike falls on deaf ears in Syria…………....4
WALL st. JOURNAL
Ø The Assad Sanction……………….…………………………5
AP
Ø FIFA rules Syria unsafe for Olympic qualifier……………...6
JERUSALEM POST
Ø Switzerland imposes sanctions on Syrian officials………….7
Ø Syria Christians fear for religious freedom ………………....7
YEDIOTH AHRONOTH
Ø Palestinian Facebook urges rushing of Israel's borders…….10
GUARDIAN
Ø Syrian president blames poorly trained police……………..12
Ø Syria's uprising could have been avoided through reform...13
Ø Obama can now define the third great project……………..17
HUFFINGTON POST
Ø Why Libya, But Not Syria? Five Answers…………………20
EURASIA REVIEW
Ø Syria: Working From An Old Play Book?...... 23
THE HILL
Ø Ros-Lehtinen wants sanctions beyond Obama's asset freeze...25
HAARETZ
Ø Tanks finally get their thanks…………………………...….26
Ø Knesset to discuss Armenian Genocide……………………30
INDEPENDENT
Ø Fisk: Fine words may not address MidEast's real needs…..32
WASHINGTON POST
Ø Syrian leader defiant over ‘crisis’ as US widens sanctions...35
Ø Writing the Middle East’s new narrative…………….…….38
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Syria: Has the Regime Turned a Corner Against the Protests?
By Faris Amato / Damascus
Time Magazine,
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
As bright spring days gradually turn hot and muggy, the consensus in Damascus is that the protest movement has been badly burnt. The activist Facebook group Syrian Revolution 2011 put out an order for a general strike across Syria on Wednesday calling for "mass protests" and the closure of all schools, universities, shops and restaurants, "not even taxis." But there was no apparent strike on Wednesday morning in central Damascus.
The mucky market was bustling with veiled women shopping for groceries and plucky boys in tattered jeans shouted out prices for their wares. Battered yellow taxis swiveled past large green buses brimming with kids in school uniform, their brows sweaty and their eyes filled with boredom. Damascus had resumed its regular life, seemingly oblivious to the fact that Syria has been the focus of the world's attention for over two months.
Syria's government has cracked down ferociously after demonstrators — bolstered by the ouster of both the long-ruling despots in Egypt and Tunisia — called for the end of president Bashar al Assad's regime. On Wednesday, after long prodding, the U.S. slapped sanctions on the Assad government for human rights abuses. Washington's actions may be too late — if sanctions had any chance for success at all.
The demonstrations in Egypt and Tunisia were bolstered after police and army brutality increased sympathy for the protesters, inspiring thousands more to flock to the cause. It is not the same in Syria. Even as the government repression grew uglier, most sources reached by TIME report that the turnout for street protests is significantly smaller than in past weeks. The fear among anti-government sympathizers is that the violence in Syria appears to be working. In an interview with the Syrian newspaper al Watan published on Wednesday, Assad said that Syria has now "overcome the crisis." On the streets of Damascus, many say they agree.
Indeed, many activists are either in prison or too scared to assemble. Sports stadiums and government buildings are being used for improvised prisons as police arrest thousands of protesters, according to Syrian human rights organizations. A Syrian student, who said two of her classmates have gone missing, told TIME that anyone either protesting or documenting the demonstration risks arrest and torture. "You could be walking along the street and never get to where you're going," she says, chuckling slightly, as if the horror of her statement was only tolerable in jest.
Syria's ubiquitous secret service has always been effective at tapping calls, employing neighbors to spy on each other and reading emails. A Korean student who studied Arabic here says that during a long phone call he had with his parents back in Korea the line went dead and a gruff man's voice cut in. "Speak in English, please," the mysterious voice asked politely.
Observers here say the regime has fostered a culture of paranoia to deter people from further civil disobedience, contributing to Wednesday's failed strike. During the recent tumult, unprecedented numbers of people went missing — around 8,000 according to local human rights groups — and activists are petrified to communicate over the phone.
Widespread fear has made it impossible to judge the mood among Syrians. Talking politics is taboo and speaking out against the regime can lead to jail time. Many people say they fear the unrest could cause sectarian strife, such as in neighboring Lebanon and Iraq. Some middle-class Syrians say they fear losing prosperity brought by the president, who opened the country to foreign investment when he ascended to power in 2000. If the president fled, they say, the economy would be crippled by populist demands for socialist policies.
A Syrian journalist, who asked not to be named for fear of reprisal, said such pro-government rhetoric is mostly lies told by people to protect themselves. "Everyone hates the government, everyone. They are just too scared to say it," she said when asked why people continue to say they support the government. She believes that the anti-government movement, now battered and bruised, is weighing whether it is feasible to continue to protest when the military is willing to use live ammunition consistently against demonstrations. "I don't think the President will leave anytime soon, but nobody wants what is going on now."
For those still demonstrating, violence is guaranteed. Armed with anything from wooden batons to assault rifles, the plain-clothes secret police, or mukhabarat, have set up positions in key areas around the capital preventing many protests from even starting and augmented security measures confine people to their neighborhoods, or even their houses.
Radwan Ziadeh, Washington-based Syrian dissident and visiting scholar at the Institute for Middle East Studies at George Washington University, says state security is much more brutal than that of Hosni Mubarak, the ousted President of Egypt. "[The Assad government] has a lot of experience with brutality," he told TIME. Western observers in Damascus agree that the extensive use of indiscriminate violence from the start of the uprising in Syria has managed to deter many from joining the protests. Human rights groups say that between 700 and 850 people have been killed so far.
Residents from Homs, one of Syria's most restive cities, say the army is using tanks to shell parts of the city and that the police are breaking into people's homes. Similar rumors trickle out of other towns around the country, but the government's refusal to allow most foreign journalists into Syria and imposed communication blackouts make it virtually impossible to corroborate any reports. Ziadeh insists the military is now occupying every city in Syria. He told TIME that in Douma, a suburb on the outskirts of Damascus, more than 100,000 people were demonstrating a few weeks ago. "Now you don't see anybody," he said.
To justify the vicious crackdown, the Syrian government casts the recent unrest as an armed uprising by criminal gangs and "extremist terrorist groups" rather than a popular movement for extensive change against an authoritarian regime. The state news agency, SANA, regularly publishes articles naming "rioters," who have turned themselves in to the authorities in return for amnesty.
Reports of machine gun fire in Homs and shelling in the nearby town of Tel Kelakh filtered out on Wednesday, evidence at least that, despite the repression the government still had to impose order on Syrians who have not given up protesting. "There are fewer numbers," dissident Ziadeh admits, "but everyday, they continue to protest."
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Call for general strike falls on deaf ears in Syria
Ria Novosti (Russian News Agency)
18 May 2011,
The Syrian opposition's calls to hold a general day long strike on Wednesday have been largely ignored, Aljazeera reported.
The Syrian opposition called for a general strike as the government denied reports that it has been burying anti-government protesters in mass graves.
"Wednesday will be a day of punishment for the regime by the revolutionaries and the people of a free will," the Syrian Revolution 2011 opposition group said on its website.
"Let's transform this Wednesday into a Friday (the regular day for protests), with mass protests, no schools, no universities, no stores or restaurants open and even no taxis."
But these calls have gone unheeded. The city streets and markets in Damascus and other large Syrian cities are busy as usual.
"You see, the market is working as usual, with all the shops open, no one is going to support any such calls," an owner of a clothing shop in Damascus central Hamidia market told a RIA Novosti correspondent.
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The Assad Sanction
The U.S. finally points to the man in charge.
Wall Street Journal,
19 May 2011,
How hard will the sanctions imposed yesterday by President Obama on Syria's Bashar Assad and his inner circle hit the regime's bottom line?
Probably not much. Unlike Libya's Moammar Gadhafi, who had tens of billions in oil riches stashed abroad until they were seized by the U.S. and our allies, the poorer Assad regime was largely cut off from U.S. financial institutions by previous sanctions. Damascus may be more worried by yesterday's move by the Swiss government to freeze the assets of 13 top Syrian officials.
Then again, the benefit of sanctions is often symbolic, and in this case sanctions mean the Obama Administration may finally be getting over its fixation with the idea that Mr. Assad is a reformer, or that he can be weaned from his alliance with Iran, or that his regime is a potential partner in solving the region's various ills.
We stress the word "may" because even now the Administration is telling reporters that the purpose of the sanctions is to put Mr. Assad on notice that he can either "lead this transition to democracy" or otherwise leave office. On cue, Mr. Assad now claims that police incompetence is to blame for all the killing. He's also made noises about holding a "dialogue" with dissidents, which is about as credible as his earlier decision to rescind the regime's decades-old emergency laws. So it's possible the Administration could go back to business as usual with Damascus after memories of mass arrests and killings fade. We'll be listening to see how clearly Mr. Obama condemns Mr. Assad in his speech on the Middle East tonight.
It's unfortunate that Mr. Obama didn't impose these sanctions earlier, when the demonstrations had momentum and before the regime had consolidated its grip. As with sanctions on Iran and the intervention in Libya, Mr. Obama seems to come to the right conclusion only after the moment when American leadership could have done the most good.
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FIFA rules Syria unsafe for Olympic qualifier, orders neutral ground for matches
By Associated Press,
May 18, 2011,
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Syria is searching for a neutral venue to hold its 2012 Olympics qualifier after FIFA ruled the country was unsafe because of ongoing anti-government protests.
The first leg was originally scheduled to be played at the Al Abbassiyin Stadium in Damascus on June 19. However, FIFA informed the Syrian FA that it had decided to move the match against Turkmenistan to a neutral venue after taking into account “the very exceptional security circumstances still prevailing in Syria.”
Syria says it will come up with a neutral venue this week.
Since mid-March, Syria has launched a violent crackdown against protesters that rights groups say has left more than 850 people dead. Thousands more have been detained.
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Switzerland imposes sanctions on Syrian officials
Jerusalem Post (original story is by Reuters)
05/18/2011,
ZURICH - Switzerland said on Wednesday it would impose travel bans on 13 Syrian officials and freeze any of their assets held in Swiss banks in response to their government's violent crackdown against pro-reform protesters.
The measures, which will take effect from May 19, match a decision by the European Union last week to impose sanctions on 13 of Assad's closest allies.
Roland Vock, who heads the office for sanctions at the Swiss Secretariat for Economics (SECO), said Swiss banks will have to check whether they hold assets of any of the 13 officials and notify the government.
The Swiss measures also include an arms embargo, although Switzerland has not exported any weapons to Syria for at least the last 10 years, the SECO said.
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Syria Christians fear for religious freedom
Minority fears change in secular Syria, concerned over plight of Christians in Iraq, Egypt; community says it has Biblical roots.
Jerusalem Post (original story is by Reuters)
18/05/2011
BEIRUT - Syria's minority Christians are watching the protests sweeping their country with trepidation, fearing their religious freedom could be threatened if President Bashar Assad's autocratic but secular rule is overthrown.
Sunni Muslims form a majority in Syria, but under four decades of rule by Assad's minority Alawites the country's varied religious groups have enjoyed the right to practice their faith.
Calls for Muslim prayers ring out alongside church bells in Damascus, where the apostle Paul started his ministry and Christians have worshipped for two millennia.
But for many Syrian Christians, the flight of their brethren from sectarian conflict in neighboring Iraq and recent attacks on Christians in Egypt have highlighted the dangers they fear they will face if Assad succumbs to the wave of uprisings sweeping the Arab world.
"Definitely the Christians in Syria support Bashar al-Assad. They hope that this storm will not spread," Yohana Ibrahim, the Syriac Orthodox Archbishop of Aleppo, told Reuters.
Protests erupted in Syria two months ago, triggered by anger and frustration at widespread corruption and lack of freedom in the country ruled with an iron fist by the Assad family for nearly half a century.
Although some Christians may be participating in the protests, church institutions have not supported them.