ISRAEL IS A STATE OF ROBBERS- DR.MAHATHIR MOHAMAD

By َQudsN 

(QNN) – Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said his country enjoys friendly relations with every country in the world except for Israel, dubbing Israel as “a state of robbers”, on Friday.

“We are not against Jews but we cannot recognize Israel because of (its) occupation of Palestinian land,” Mahathir said in his statement, aired by local broadcasters, during his three-day visit to Pakistan on Friday.

“You cannot seize others’ lands, and form a state. It’s like a state of robbers”, he added.

His remarks came a day after U.S. President Donald Trump said it was time for the U.S. to recognize Israel’s control of the occupied Golan Heights.

“Israel” has long pushed the White House to recognize its claim over the territory it seized from Syria during the 1967 Six-Day War.

“Israel” occupies roughly two-thirds of the wider Golan Heights. It moved to formally annex the territory in 1981 — an action unanimously rejected at the time by the UN Security Council.

With Oil, Water and Iran as Targets, US on Brink of Recognizing Israeli Sovereignty over Golan Heights

Whitney WEBB

 A new bill recently introduced in the Senate, along with its companion bill in the House, would result in the United States government recognizing Israel’s sovereignty over Syria’s Golan Heights, which has been occupied by Israel since 1967. The territory was later annexed in 1981, but the international community — including the United States — has not recognized Israel’s claim to the Syrian territory.

In addition, the bill would also promote the U.S. conducting “joint projects” with Israel in the Golan, including “industrial research and development.” This is sure to result in joint U.S.-Israeli efforts to extract the large oil reserves recently discovered in the Golan Heights, as the rights to extract that oil were granted to the joint U.S.-Israeli venture Genie Energy soon after its discovery was made public.

The move to introduce legislation regarding the contested territory has been hinted at for months by top Israeli officials, especially following the decision of the Trump administration to unilaterally recognize the city of Jerusalem as belonging exclusively to Israel and as being that country’s capital.

Working the Iran angle

Last May, Israeli Intelligence Minister Israel Katz told Reuters that Washington’s endorsement of Israel’s control of the Golan Heights was now “topping the agenda” in bilateral diplomatic talks between the two countries, and that such a move would likely come within a matter of months, though it apparently took longer than Katz had originally anticipated.

Katz also had stated that U.S. recognition of the Golan was being peddled to the Trump administration as a way to further counter Iran, the goal that has now become the guiding force behind President Donald Trump’s Middle East policy. In addition, Katz had stated that bilateral discussions regarding U.S. recognition of the Golan had vastly expanded to involve various levels of the U.S. administration as well as several Congressmen.

The effort to which Katz alluded last year appears to have paid off in the form of the recently introduced bills in both the House and the Senate. The Senate bill was introduced by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), who is the top Republican recipient of pro-Israel lobby contributions in the U.S. Senate, and Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR), who is also heavily funded by the pro-Israel lobby. Indeed, Cotton received over $700,000 from the Emergency Committee for Israel in 2014 and nearly $1 million from that same group a year later.

Just as Katz had stated, the new bill frames U.S. recognition of the Golan as a means of countering Iran, stating directly that the U.S. must recognize Israeli sovereignty over the area “in light of new realities on the ground, including Iran’s presence in Syria.” It also notably states that it is in the “national security interest” of the United States that Israel consolidate its control over the territory, and further states that the push to recognize the Golan Heights as belonging to Israel is a “diplomatic and geopolitical” consequence of the Syrian government’s alleged use of “weapons of mass destruction,” alleged “ethnic cleansing of Arab Sunnis,” and its killing of civilians.

This basis for punishing Syria by weakening its claim to the Golan is dubious at best. Indeed, the Syrian government’s alleged use of “weapons of mass destruction,” apparently a reference to chemical weapons, is a contested matter given the fact that many, if not all, of those alleged chemical weapons attacks were either staged or involved chemical weapons instead used by rebel groups backed by the United States and its regional allies, including Israel. The United States has also repeatedly and illegally used a chemical weapon, white phosphorus, in its military operations in Syria.

In addition, the bill fails to note that the U.S. has killed scores of Syrian civilians in its military operations in Syria — including in Raqqa, where civilian bodies are still being uncovered nearly two years after the U.S.-led “liberation” of that city. Apparently, only the Syrian government’s civilian death toll has “diplomatic and geopolitical consequences.”

Furthermore, the latter point of Syria’s alleged ethnic cleansing of “Arab Sunnis” is sharply ironic given Israel’s ethnic cleansing of Palestine, most of whose inhabitants are also “Arab Sunnis,” as well as the fact that U.S.-backed rebel groups ethnically cleansed large parts of Syria from religious minority groups such as Christians and Yazidis.

Thus, the justification for giving the Golan to Israel as a means of punishing Syria is just window dressing for the Israeli government push to consolidate its control over the territory with the help of its allies in the U.S. government. Despite that, the bill has a good chance of passing the Senate, given that chamber’s recent and overwhelming bipartisan approval of the so-called “anti-BDS” bill that had been pushed by the pro-Israel lobby as a means of countering nonviolent efforts to protest Israel’s inhumane occupation of Palestine.

Cover for the oil

Despite Israel’s eagerness to consolidate control over the territory, any U.S. recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan would likely generate backlash from the majority of the international community and would likely heighten tensions between Israel and Syria. This is largely because international law still refuses to recognize the area as part of Israel, even though Israel has sent over 20,000 Jewish settlers to live there in order to permanently change the area’s ethnic-demographic composition, turning the native Druze population into a minority.

Many of the Druze living in the occupied Golan have long complained of being routinely discriminated against under Israeli rule, and continue to support the Syrian government. In addition, the UN has accused Israel of “forcing citizenship” onto the group in a bid to increase its claim to sovereignty over the region. Israel hopes to add an additional 100,000 Jewish settlers to the area by 2020 in order to strengthen this claim.

A Druze man watches fighting between Syrian troops and rebels in the village of Jubata al-Khashab, as seen from the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, on, Sept. 11, 2016. Ariel Schalit | AP

While any such measure is unlikely to gain much traction internationally, it is important to note that the goal of a U.S. measure to recognize Israeli sovereignty over the Golan is not to secure international support but to provide enough diplomatic cover for the joint U.S.-Israeli extraction and use of the area’s strategic resources, namely oil. Indeed, in 2015, a massive oil reserve was discovered in the Golan Heights and is estimated to contain “billions of barrels” of crude oil that could turn Israel – which currently imports the vast majority of its fuel – into a net oil exporter.

Soon after that discovery, the Israeli government granted exclusive drilling rights to Afek, an Israeli subsidiary of New Jersey-based energy company Genie Energy, Ltd. As MintPress has previously reported, Genie Energy is backed by powerful interests in the U.S., such as former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, former Vice President and Halliburton executive Dick Cheney, and former CIA Director James Woolsey. Powerful Zionist billionaires, such as Australian-born media mogul Rupert Murdoch and England’s Jacob Rothschild, are also connected to the company. Its Israeli subsidiary, Afek, is run by a close friend of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

MintPress has previously reported that Genie Energy’s investments in the Golan are likely the strongest factor guiding the U.S. towards the recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the occupied territory. Indeed, without a U.S. move recognizing Israel’s control over the region, Genie’s Israeli subsidiary is unable to sell any oil it extracts from the occupied territory on the international oil market.

This argument is strongly supported by the text of the current bill, which specifically calls for joint U.S.-Israeli projects in the Golan that include projects in “basic and applied scientific fields” and “industrial research and development.”

Oil and water do mix

In addition to oil, the Golan Heights contains important freshwater resources, as it is one of three sources of freshwater available to the Israeli state. It is the largest in size and most abundant, as it includes the mountain streams that feed Lake Kinneret (the Sea of Galilee) and the headwaters of the Jordan River. As MintPress has noted in the past, the water resources of the Golan Heights are essential not only to Israel’s existence but also to its expansionist ambitions, a fact that explains Israel’s role in creating a plan in 2006 to engineer a “civil war” in Syria. Yet, the discovery of oil and creation of Genie Energy have dramatically strengthened Israel’s resolve, as well as the resolve of powerful figures in the U.S. and the U.K., to consolidate control over the Golan.

However, the current text of this new bill suggests that the use of this water will also come into play in the joint U.S.-Israeli project it calls for in “strategic and applied research of agricultural problems.”

Originally, Israel had planned to use a “buffer zone” of extremist militants it was funding in southern Syria in order to push for international recognition of the Golan, particularly in the event that the Syrian conflict resulted in regime change in Damascus. However, as South Front noted late last year, the Syrian military’s defeat of those groups has dealt “a huge blow to Tel Aviv’s plans to make the international community recognize the annexation of the Golan Heights” and led then-Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman to worry that the Syrian military’s success could soon threaten Israel’s hold on the Syrian territory.

Thus, Israel is now pushing for the U.S. to recognize its sovereignty over the Golan for fear of losing it completely, even though such recognition could result in an all-out war between Israel and Syria, as well as with Syrian allies such as Iran and Lebanon’s Hezbollah. Given that Israel has been preparing for such a war for well over a year and that Israel has been given the authority to bring U.S. troops into that conflict if and when it occurs, the likely consequences of the passage of this bill should be treated with the gravity they deserve.

The Golan Heights front to reopen; the Zionists fear of attrition warfare

By Ramin Hossein Abadian

TEHRAN - The advancement of the Syrian army in the south of the country in the battle against the U.S., Zionists-backed Takfiri terrorists has been a matter of grave concern for Tel Aviv officials.

The liberation of southern part of Syria from the Takfiri group by the Syrian army is frightening to the Zionists as the area is in close proximity to the Golan Heights, where the Syrian officials have said time and again to rid the area of the Zionists. This is while the Zionists have made every effort to expand buffer zones in the area by keeping the Takfiri terrorists in the region.  

The occupied Golan Heights, a rocky plateau in south-western Syria, have special importance for the Zionist regime and they will never be willing to return the area to its rightful owner, Syria.

Golan Heights is considered one of the most strategic areas for Syria, Lebanon, and the Zionist regime. It is one of the main passages overlooking the occupied Palestinian territory. The area allows the Zionist regime to spy on Syrian military, electronic and telecommunication facilities as it is a lookout to the outskirts of Damascus.  

In addition, the Zionist won’t leave a land rich with gas and oil. 

In 2013, upon providing an oil exploration license to an American-Israeli company, the Zionist regime began to exploit oil from the Golden Heights. In 2014, the Israeli drilling company, Horizon, set the stage for the start of exploration of oil in the area. Israel is seeking to exploit more than a billion barrels of oil from the Golan Heights.

Exploration operation has begun in 10 bases and estimates indicate the oil exploited will suffice Israel’s need for years to come. Therefore, it is clear that the Zionists are eager to seize the oil resources in the Golan Heights and seek to plunder the valuable resources which originally belonged to the Syrian government.

It is not just Israelis, but Americans, too, fear the loss of the Golan Heights. Al-Yaum newspaper writes, “The Donald Trump administration, Israel’s partner, supports the Israeli army and exploitation of oil in the Golan Heights. What is important is that former U.S. ambassador to UN, Nikki Haley, voted in favor of the Zionist regime, and against the annual resolution that condemned the occupation of Israel of the Golan Heights.”

To hang on to the Golan Heights, one of Israel’s goals is to intensify the tension in Syria, prolong Syria’s crisis and consequently, deter the resistance forces and distract the Syrian government from wanting to regain control of the area. Naturally, Israel enjoys the U.S. support that believes in strengthening the Zionist regime’s power in the region.   

One of the influential figures in the resistance axis against Israel and the U.S. is Secretary General of Hezbollah Hassan Nasrollah, who believes in the return of the Golan Heights to the Syrians as well as the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Al-Yaum newspaper says, “For decades, Hezbollah has the Golan Heights at the top of the agenda, and has lost two great people Samir Kuntar and his assistant jihad Mughniyah. Hizbullah's circles are now concealing the identity of the new commander who replaced Kuntar.”

However, any reopening of the new front in the occupied Golan Heights will come after the liberation of Idlib, because all political talks and focus are now on that Syrian province.

In any case, if a new front opens up in the occupied Golan Heights by resistance groups and Hezbollah, there will be undoubtedly a war of attrition for the Zionists; a war that may repeat the same defeat for Zionists in southern Lebanon In 2002.

The point is the Zionist regime won’t be able to fight in many fronts, as they are already involved in three fronts: one in northern occupied territories with Hezbollah, one in southern occupied territories with the Palestinian resistance groups in Gaza, and the other in the east of the occupied lands with the Syrian and Hezbollah groups. That is why the possibility of future struggle in the Golan Heights is undeniable for the Zionist.

US- and Zionist-occupied Golan Heights

Editor

The Zionist entity occupied the Syrian Golan Heights in the June 1967 War. Under international law, lands occupied through wars of aggression cannot be usurped. No action should be taken to alter facts on the ground. The Zionists, ever the outlaws, violated all these international laws and protocals.

In 1981, the Zionists declared “annexation” of the Golan Heights. No country in the world accepted this annexation. In fact, every year, a resolution is presented at the UN condemning this act. In the past, the US abstained from voting. This year, however, under Donald Trump and his ambassador at the UN, Nikki Haley, the US opposed the resolution that condemned Zionist annexation of the Golan Heights.

Haley whose real name is Nirmata Randhawa, is of Indian origin. She is a Zionist puppet and stooge. She acts not as the US ambassador but as representative of the Zionist entity. This is because she has presidential ambitions and understands that only the Zionists can put her in the White House.

Regardless of Randhawa Kaur’s rant at the UN on November 16, the Golan Heights remains occupied territory and the Zionists will have to vacate these occupied lands. That day is not very far; in fact, the entire Zionist enterprise will be dismantled with its racist ideology of apartheid consigned to the dustbin of history. There will emerge a single State in Palestine where equality before the law will apply to everyone irrespective of religion.

A Big Step for a Greater Israel

Eric S. MARGOLIS

Hardly anyone noticed. The Trump administration quietly changed America’s long-held position on Syria’s strategic Golan Heights while attention was focused on the raucous political carnival in Washington. Though barely noticed, the policy change had enormous importance and will lead the United States into a lot of future Mideast misery.

The Golan Heights is a volcanic plateau that abuts Syria, Israel, Jordan and Lebanon. The plateau rises abruptly from the plain of Galilee, providing dominance of the entire region. To the north, Mt Hermon rises to over 9,000 feet (2,814 meters); the plateau slopes down at its southern extremity.

Golan provides the headwaters of the Jordan River and 15-20% of Israel’s water from its snow-capped north. Israeli artillery atop Golan can hit Damascus and its airport. Electronic intelligence systems on Golan look down onto southern Syria, intercepting all communications and detecting troop movements.

The plateau is quite fascinating. I have walked most of the Israeli-held side, observing dug-in tanks, artillery and small forts surrounded by anti-tank ditches. Burned out wrecks of Syrian tanks and armor litter the countryside. I’ve also walked the Syrian side and explored the wrecked Syrian town of Kuneitra that was leveled by the Israelis in 1967.

Israel seized Golan in the 1967 Arab-Israeli War and annexed the plateau in 1981. Almost all of Golan’s Arab population was driven out by the Israelis. The UN and US demanded that Israel return Golan to its rightful owner, Syria. After 1981, Israel moved over 20,000 settlers onto Golan to cement its control of the strategic heights and its water sources.

During the 1973 Arab-Israeli War, Syrian forces came close to pushing Israeli forces off Golan. Both sides suffered heavy casualties. For still unknown reasons, the Syrian armored offensive abruptly halted just as it reached the western edge of the plateau overlooking northern Israel.

My understanding is that Soviet recon satellites saw Israel deploying its nuclear bombs and missiles from their cave shelters. Moscow warned ally Syria that it risked nuclear attack by Israel unless its forces halted their advance so the Syrian offensive stopped on the verge of tactical success. This allowed Israel to concentrate enough reserve armored divisions to successfully counter-attack and drive Syria from the heights.

Since 1973, America’s policy has been to demand Israel relinquish Golan while quietly allowing US tax deductible funds to expand Jewish settlements on the plateau. Israel even reportedly offered to return Golan in exchange for a peace deal with Syria, but the secret terms of the deal were too onerous for Damascus.

The Trump administration abruptly changed US Mideast policy. First, it announced the US Embassy would move from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, meaning that it rejected the idea of a Palestinian state with its capital in the old city of Jerusalem. Now, the White House has quietly accepted permanent Israeli control of Golan, though it violates international law and past US policy.

It’s clear that US Mideast policy is firmly under the control of the neocons aligned to Israel’s expansionist far right parties. In fact, it is impossible to see any difference between the policies of Israel’s hard rightwing leader, Benyamin Netanyahu, and President Donald Trump. They are joined at the hip. A coterie of pro-Israel lawyers and property developers from New York City have completely taken control of Mideast policy.

More important, what the change in US Golan policy means is that Trump & Co are giving a green light to further Israeli territorial expansion. Now that Washington, which decries Russia’s much more justified annexation of Crimea, has approved the illegal annexation of Golan, what could be next? Likely further chunks of southern Syria, an invasion of Lebanon and annexation of its water resources.

Saudi Arabia and its little ally, the United Arab Emirates, have already been given a green light by Washington to carve out strongholds in Yemen and along the strategic Red Sea coast. This is the Mideast ‘peace’ settlement that candidate Trump promised; an increasingly close alliance with the Mideast’s most reactionary states, notably the murderous Saudi regime. This bodes ill for the United States.

US-Zionist Threats Against Iran and Hizbullah

Editor

The threat of military force is usually effective only as long as it is not used. Once resorted to, the aggressor’s advantage in material superiority and preponderance of firepower become secondary to the outcome of the larger struggle. Examples abound.

The US learned this the hard way in Vietnam and Iraq, and is now being taught the same lesson in Afghanistan. Zionist Israel discovered the limits of firepower against Hizbullah in Lebanon in 2006. Given their repeated failures, why are the US and Zionist Israel now threatening Islamic Iran, a far more formidable power than those the twin evil regimes have confronted in the past? That old habits die hard is well recognized. Threats and bullying are what the imperialists and Zionists are used to. They are quick to resort to brute force against very weak opponents. After getting a bloody nose repeatedly, the Americans now indulge in economic warfare through sanctions and currency manipulations. Whenever they get an itch, the Zionists attack the two million besieged defenceless inhabitants of Gaza.

In view of the rising crescendo of war hysteria against Islamic Iran, let us consider what a possible war scenario would be. But first, we must mention what the Rahbar, Imam Seyyed Ali Khamenei said last month. He dismissed the possibility of war while ruling out any talks with the US following Donald Trump’s offer, “There will be no war and I forbid any talks with the US.” The Rahbar’s rejection of talks with the US was based on sound reasoning: Uncle Sam is neither honest nor credible. Lying and cheating are part of his DNA.

Returning to the possibility of war let us suppose Israel and/or the US were to attack Hizbullah or Islamic Iran. Responding to Trump’s threats, General Qassem Soleimani, Commander of the Quds Force warned the US, “You can start a war but we will finish it.” Unlike the Americans and Zionists, Iranians do not make empty threats. Lest people forget, this month (September) marks the 38th anniversary of Iraq’s invasion of Islamic Iran. For eight years, Iran single handedly defended itself against the combined might of the Arabian regimes and their Western backers, as well as the Soviet Union. This epic defence is etched in the memory of every Iranian.

So what should we make of US-Zionist threats? Many Israelis, especially former military commanders among them General Ehud Barak, have admitted that Israel lost to Hizbullah in the 2006 war. Today, Hizbullah has a much larger arsenal of missiles — 130,000 according to most estimates — than it had in 2006. And in the best possible scenario, the Israeli Iron Dome would be able to intercept only 70% of missiles. If 30% of the missiles get through, that means some 39,000 missiles will rain down on Israel.

Hizbullah Secretary General Sayyid Hasan Nasrullah has warned that if Israel were to attack Lebanon’s civilian infrastructure as it did in 2006, Hizbullah would retaliate and hit Israeli cities. Imagine Hizbullah missiles hitting Tel Aviv, Haifa, or the illegal squatter colonies in the West Bank. There would be pandemonium. Last July after Israel bombed a Syrian military base, the latter retaliated by firing missiles into the Occupied Golan Heights with Zionist squatters scurrying into bomb shelters. Israel turned to Russia begging it to stop the Syrians promising not to attack their bases anymore!

Israel is extremely vulnerable. The Dimona nuclear plant and its chemical weapons factories in Haifa are within range of Hizbullah and Iranian missiles. Imagine a mushroom cloud over Tel Aviv or poison gas release over Haifa. Israel’s nuclear and chemical weapons have become millstones around its neck.

The Zionists are cowards. They attack weak opponents but are unable to take punishment. Both Israel and the US prefer short, sharp wars; destroy the opponent’s infrastructure and then call for a ceasefire. If the war lasts more than two weeks, they are in trouble. Hizbullah and Iran would not allow them to determine the duration of war, if the imperialists and Zionists blunder into launching one.

More than 90% of Israelis today have dual citizenship compared to only 35% in 2006. It shows they have no faith in their government or military. It is no fun having to scramble into bomb shelters, with disruption in electricity and water supplies as well as food shortages for weeks. When greener pastures are available elsewhere, why stay in a miserable ghetto like Israel.

Trump and Netanyahu, be careful; be very, very careful. Don’t even dream of attacking Iran or Hizbullah or you will wake up apologizing! But that will not save your thick hides.

 

Editor