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IN 1980, THE MASSACRE OF HAMA...
Another ESISC .pdf.
By Abdelkarim Chankou, Editor of the "Détective Marocain"

In his "newsletter", "Le Détective Marocain” (the “Moroccan Detective"), the journalist Abdelkarim Chankou signed yesterday a remarkable leading article of courage, clearness and reason. Here is his article in exclusivity for Esisc.

In 1980 one member of the Moslem Brotherhood tried to assassinate the Syrian president Hafez el-Assad. Several Imams are then arrested by the Alawit clan. On February 2, 1982, under the control of 150 Sunnite officers, the town of Hama revolts.

Assad reacts violently by giving the order to besiege the city and to bombard it with heavy artillery. A third of the city - cash of many architectural jewels - will be destroyed and between 10 and 25.000 civil will be massacred during the 27 days of siege. The anti-subversive commandos infiltrated the columns of refugees fleeing the engagements and jail, torture and execute thousands of people. In Occident as in the Middle East, this massacre was approved by the governments. The General Alexander Haig, Secretary of State de Ronald Reagan, even welcomed the "firmness" of Hafez el-Assad: "This guy understands how to tackle the [problem of
the] bearded ones", he said at that time.

Less than one year later, another similar scenario is repeated in November 1983, in Tripoli (northern part of Lebanon), where Yasser Arafat and 11 000 Fedayin are, this time, besieged by their Syrian "brothers". Paris and Washington decide to ensure an exit to Abou Ammar. The French Army escorts him in his exile in Tunis. But right before the departure for Tunisia, a curious fact occurs: an Israeli sniper, posted at 200 meters from the port, sees the chief of the PLO about to embark and announces by radio to its HQ that he is in the right position to shoot him. Israeli Prime Minister Menahem Begin, which gave its word to the Americans that all the Palestinians would be saved, gives the order not to shoot!

This short historical background is not aimed at giving lessons to anybody or courting anybody, but is aimed at making allowances and learning two lessons:

1) 25.000 Syrian Sunnite civilians knowingly massacred in 27 days and a third of their Hama city destroyed by the Alawit clan, that does not move anybody whereas 327 Lebanese civilians killed involuntarily in 8 days by the Israelis in the tread of their war against Hezbollah, give rise to disgust and general indignation;

2) an Israeli sniper who first asks the permission to his hierarchy before shooting, even when the target is the enemy number one, that proves that Tsahal is a disciplined army.

Would a combatant of Hezbollah have initially called his chief Hassan Nasrallah before shooting Ehud Olmert if he was in position to do so?
Posted by: anonymous5089 2006-07-21
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=160345