In her column in the Syrian government daily Teshreen, Buthayna Sha'ban, political advisor to Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad, claimed that Israel is using death squads against its opponents across the world. She hinted, for example, that Israel was behind the 2003 assassination of Swedish foreign minister Anna Lindh (stabbed in March 2003 by a Serbian national with a history of mental problems), and of right-wing Austrian politician Jörg Haider (who died in 2008 in a car crash while driving under the influence of alcohol). She names Judge Richard Goldstone as another of "freedom's fallen." Following are the main points of the article:[1]
For more conspiracy theories in the Middle East, visit http://www.memri.org/subject/en/80.htm.
"Israel's Only Reaction [to the Global Protest Against It] is Assassination, According to Its Heritage"
"...The first decade of this century was characterized by the world's beginning to understand that the Middle East conflict is not religious, or a fight against terrorism – as the Zionist propaganda tries to portray it – but results from [the actions of] a racist settlement movement that is denying freedom to an ancient people which has been living on its forefathers' land for thousands of years... Israel's only reaction [to the global protest against it] is assassination, according to its heritage. Israel used a bulldozer to kill American [human rights activist] Rachel Corrie, as well as British film director James Miller...
"For 60 years, Israel has used military force, killing, and state terrorism not only against the Palestinians and Arabs in the territories it occupied, but also against anyone daring to criticize its policy. Israel's various governments have taken pride in releasing lists of people they assassinated – from the author Ghassan Kanafani, the cartoonist Naji Al-'Ali, and the poet Kamal 'Adwan to the crippled sheikh Ahmad Yassin, and the boy Muhammad Al-Dura – and the list includes even those who signed peace agreements with it, such as Yasser Arafat.
"For the past few days, the Israeli army has been handing out medals to criminals who murdered, assassinated, detonated [explosive charges], and took part in other terror operations that the Israeli government is carrying out officially in many countries, such as Tunisia, Britain, Cyprus, France, Dubai, and other countries... Other operations, such as the assassination of Swedish foreign minister Anna Lindh, Austrian politician [Jörg] Haider, and others were carried out under unclear circumstances. The only common denominator of all [these victims] is their support for the rights of the Palestinian people and for uncovering the crimes that Israel is committing against them... It's quite possible that, at the last ceremony, Israel gave medals to the assassins of Anna Lindh, Rachel Corrie, and Muhammad Al-Dura, among others...
"There is No Doubt that This will be the Decade of [the Palestinians'] Victory"
"The war on Gaza revealed to the entire world the real faces of Israel's leaders, and the crimes [that they committed] against the Palestinian people in recent decades. We began to see students at the University of Berkeley in California expelling the Israeli ambassador; Israeli officials fearing arrest in the European capitals; former European ministers establishing an organization for defending the Palestinians' right to freedom; Holocaust survivors hunger-striking to lift the siege on Gaza; and the Jewish judge Goldstone confirming that Israel carried out war crimes against the Palestinian people.
"The Israeli death squads can kill as many media members, photographers, politicians, and activists supporting the Palestinians' right to freedom and justice [as they want], and [Israel can set up] as many blockades [as it wants], and impose a siege and carry out collective punishment and war crimes. But there is no doubt that this will be the decade of victory of the Palestinians' right to triumph and justice. Free men from all over the world have broken through the barrier of fear of the Zionist terrorism, manifest in the assassination and murder carried out by the Israeli Mossad for years, with the support of Western intelligence apparatuses.
"The names of freedom's fallen, such as James Miller, Rachel Corrie, Thomas Hurndall, Richard Goldstone [sic], Ronnie Kessler [sic], and Anna Lindh, will continue to illuminate, like torches, the history of the human struggle for freedom, justice, and human rights..."
Endnotes:
[1] Teshreen (Syria), February 15, 2010.
