Author: Mick Hartley

revealed that UNRWA employed hundreds of terrorists.

In July, Israel’s Foreign Ministry released what it said was only a partial list, containing the names and ID numbers of 108 UNRWA employees who according to Israel worked for Hamas. According to the ministry, the wider list could not be released due to security considerations.

“We have provided much evidence that UNRWA works hand-in-hand with Hamas,” said Prime Minister's Office spokesman David Mencer, referring to the Hamas server farm discovered underneath UNRWA's headquarters in Gaza City and Hamas tunnels underneath UNRWA schools in the Strip.

In October, the Knesset voted to ban UNRWA, with the Foreign Ministry calling the refugee agency “rotten.”

“It is not just a few rotten apples, as U.N. Secretary-General [Antonio] Guterres is trying to claim. UNRWA in Gaza is a rotten tree entirely infected with terrorist operatives,” the ministry said.

For more on UNRWA, see here and here.

iences, in addition to the main network’s meetings.

The five groups involved in the scheme include asexual and aromantic, bi+, non-binary, rainbow family, and trans.

It's like allowing religious groups to have their own special spaces and times off for prayer meetings and the like. Then again I suppose these are, if not exactly religious groups, certainly cult groups.

Safe spaces for women, though? Ha!

Describing the meetings as safe spaces is understood to have irked some NHS staff who are battling for women to have the right to single-sex spaces including toilets, showers, and hospital wards.

One source told The Telegraph: “Safe spaces are really important but not if you are a woman who wants to use toilets or changing rooms without men who identify as female there with you.”…

Helen Joyce, the director of advocacy at human-rights charity Sex Matters, said: “By running these events, NHS England is perpetuating the myth that people with a so-called ‘gender identity’ are automatically at elevated risk of harm. Employees with special gender identities should of course be treated fairly – that is, the same way as everyone else.

“It’s extraordinary to see this being pushed in the name of ‘inclusion’ at the same time as a group of nurses in Darlington are being treated as bigots and excluded from their own changing rooms because they don’t want to share with male staff who identify as women.

“NHS England should provide genuine ‘safer spaces’ for female NHS staff and drop the performative gender identity nonsense.”

’s a lot in what you say here (albeit rather windily). But it’s worth reminding you, very gently, that you’re working for Rupert Murdoch now. And anyone who works for him serves his interests. pic.twitter.com/ssMoGmNviC

— Richard Williams (@rwilliams1947) December 8, 2024

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Quite a (deserved) pile-on in the responses.

From the Telegraph:

Thousands of prisoners are believed to be stuck in hidden underground cells in Bashar al-Assad’s most notorious prison, according to survivors.

The White Helmets, a Syrian civil defence group, said it had deployed five “specialised emergency teams” to Saydnaya prison in Damascus following the reports.

Saydnaya, once described by Amnesty as a “human slaughterhouse”, was liberated after the Islamist-led opposition forces entered the capital after their lightning offensive across Syria.

The Damascus Countryside Governorate is appealing to former regime soldiers and prison workers to give rebel forces the electronic codes to free “more than 100,000” detainees who can be seen on CCTV. Their claim could not be independently verified.

Tens of thousands of prisoners have now been freed from the regime’s prisons across the country, where human rights groups said torture and mass hangings were carried out.

More than 100,000 detainees! Well, it's believable. The true depravity of the Assad regime is about to be exposed.

Any chance of the International Criminal Court getting involved? I know it's not Israel, but still….

e its rule and demonstrate its ability to provide stability and services.

It has previously praised the Taliban, upon their return to power in 2021, lauding them as an inspiration and a model for effectively balancing jihadist efforts with political aspirations, including making tactical compromises to achieve their goals.

Jawlani's efforts in Idlib reflected his broader strategy to demonstrate HTS's ability not only to wage jihad but also to govern effectively….

Jawlani and the SG have since reassured domestic and international audiences.

To Syrians, including minorities, they promised safety; to neighbours and powers like Russia, they pledged peaceful relations. Jawlani even assured Russia its Syrian bases would remain unharmed if attacks ceased.

This shift reflects HTS's "moderate jihad" strategy since 2017, emphasising pragmatism over rigid ideology.

Jawlani's approach could signal the decline of global jihad movements like IS and al-Qaeda, whose inflexibility is increasingly seen as ineffective and unsustainable.

His trajectory might inspire other groups to adapt, marking either a new era of localised, politically flexible "jihadism" or just a temporary divergence from the traditional path in order to make political and territorial gains.

I'm going for "just a temporary divergence" from the traditional jihad path – to seize power and gain international approval. But yes, of course, it's a huge moment for Syria to see the back of the Assad regime and the prisons being emptied and thousands of Syrians returning to their homes. So giving the new rulers some benefit of the doubt after the years of Assad brutality is entirely reasonable. But…

The main backers of the new Syrian government will be Turkey, it seems. So, expect serious assaults on the Syrian Kurds. Which, according to the Jerusalem Post, have already begun:

Representatives of the Syrian Kurds have recently appealed to Israeli officials via various communications channels seeking assistance and protection.

This comes as the regime of former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad was crumbling, and the country was taken over by Islamist rebels.

Earlier today, Turkish-backed Syrian rebels announced that they had begun attacking Kurdish forces in the Manbij area in northern Syria, northeast of Aleppo.

Israel, which views the Kurdish community as a friendly and Western-oriented entity, has been working with Western countries since the beginning of the current campaign to ensure the security of the Kurds within the emerging new reality in Syria.

The current situation, including the victory of Sunni jihadists and the intensification of the civil war, creates security and political uncertainty.

omen do women. 

Not that approbation precludes abuse. The morning after Gascón’s triumph, the French far-right MEP Marion Maréchal tweeted: “So a man has won best actress.” Six LGBTQ+ organisations filed complaints against Maréchal. Gascón has personally sued her.

Well – only those on the far-right could possibly object to all this pink fabulousness. That's how it works in Guardian-land, isn't it?

Thousands of Syrians are crossing the Turkish border to return home.

We can worry tomorrow about who governs Syria and how, but for now, let’s celebrate with the Syrian people.

After such a challenging year, seeing Syrians return after years of exile is a precious moment ❤️ pic.twitter.com/rTxU8IhBY6

— Hen Mazzig (@HenMazzig) December 8, 2024

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[Photos © Cafe Royal Books/Joni Sternbach]

astonishingly illiberal hypocrisy, spattered in the blood of 600,000 Syrians who did not count, and still embraced EVEN THIS WEEK by a certain discredited UN rapporteur…

The tragedy of Syria may be coming to an end in a wondrous flowering of tolerant democracy with the end of repression, Islamism and the closing of Syria’s recent history as the plaything of outside powers OR this may just be the latest act in a failure of the Syrian state and its tragedy as a battlefield of local contenders, Iran, Israel, Turkiye and great powers America and Russia.

/x.com/elicalebon/status/1865595579176473074″>Elica Le Bon:

While there is still uncertainty over the power vacuum that will follow, one thing is for sure, and that’s that the Islamic Regime in Iran just lost one of its closest allies that it had long assisted in massacres against Syrians with its proxy Hezbollah.

Iranians have been watching the heart-felt moments Syrians have deserved finally coming true over the past few days: release of political prisoners, returning home after exile, and visiting the graves of the beloveds they lost. This feeling is something many of us, like Syrians, could only imagine in our dreams.

Now with the Islamic regime’s proxy Hamas all but crumbled, Hezbollah disenfranchised in Lebanon and disempowered in Syria, this is the moment to finally take Iran back and free the Middle East from the regimes that finally met their match.

Let's hope so. Unfortunately we don't know yet what this new Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group have in mind for Syria. So, "cautious hope" maybe, but it's a fair bet that a liberal pluralism and warm relations with Israel are not on the cards. In the Middle East change often – usually – means change for the worse.