Franklin Lamb (Counterpunch) ISIS, Iraq: Towards the “Liberation” of Palestine.
Organises ‘fun days’ for kids says Franklin Lamb in Counterpunch.
Counterpunch has published some well-informed reports on the unfolding civil war in Iraq, notably by Patrick Cockburn.
The same cannot be said for the latest piece by the notorious Franklin Lamb, who has been linked to the far-right Réseau Voltaire (Voltaire Network) (23 articles, up to 2001).
Will ISIS Create al-Sham Caliphate & Liberate Palestine?
This is written after talks with members of ISIS, the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, presently fighting its way through Iraq , with a serious presence in Syria (which he often cites under its Arabic acronym DAASH).
more than a dozen ardent supporters of The Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIS), known locally as DAASH whose representatives allowed this observer over the past six months to interview some of its supporters
Franklin’s main interest is in what he calls the ‘liberation of Palestine”.
This is the key to understanding the following comment,
DAASH insists that it has become less active in killing anyone who works for the government of Syria or Iraq including rubbish collectors, a barbaric practice that alienated the Sunni population and that their support is growing as they increasingly provide the essential social services in the forming proto-Caliphate. “Zionists call us masked, sociopathic murderers but we are much more complicated and representative of those seeking justice than they portray us. Are we more barbaric than the Zionist terrorists who massacred at Dier Yassin, Shatila twice at Qana, and committed dozens of other massacres? History will judge us after we free Palestine.”A few years ago the CIA and others estimated that the Zionist occupation of Palestine will collapse in less than a decade. DAASH claims it can do the job in 72 months.
He then allows them to state,
With respect to events surrounding its takeover of Mosel and other social media broadcast exhibitions of mass brutality, ISIS claims it was done for a purpose, the same purpose that other state and non-state actors have used over the past two decade and that is for 90% of the world 1.5 billion Muslims (Sunni) to free themselves from the oppression of the 10% (Shia).
The Reseau Voltaire contributor records this comment,
ISIS appears uniformly contemptuous of the Zionist regime and its army and also appears eager to fight them in the near future despite expectation that the regime will use nuclear weapons. “Do you think that we do not have access to nuclear devices? The Zionists know that we do and if we ever believe they are about to use theirs we will not hesitate. After the Zionists are gone, Palestine will have to be decontaminated and rebuilt just like areas where there has been radiation released.”
Like all groups with the interest of the people at heart ISIS (apart from operating a policy of great religious tolerance) carries out the following.
DASH supporters claim that as soon as they ‘liberate” and area invest in public works such as the new souk in Raqqa, installs new power lines and conducts training sessions on how citizens can do-it-yourself for more self-reliance with fixing infrastructure problems. In addition DAASH claims that it quickly fixes potholes, runs a low fare bus system, has established a ‘green’ program to build parks and plant trees and flowers, helps farmers with harvests and runs a zakat (almsgiving) organization.
Moreover, ISIS has established a number of religious schools for children, including ones for girls where they can memorize the Koran and receive certificates if successful, while also holding “fun days” (1) for kids including all the ice cream they can eat and inflatable slides. For their older counterparts, ISIS has established training sessions for new imams and preachers. Schedules for prayers and Koran lessons are posted at mosques. In a more worrisome development, ISIS runs training camps for “cub scouts” and houses these recruits in the group’s facilities.
Several social media reports and a few eyewitness accounts appear to confirm that DAASH has developed health and welfare programs, operates bread factories and distributes free fruits and vegetables to needy families, passing the goods out personally as well as setting up a free food kitchen in Raqqa as well as an adoption agency to place orphans with families in their areas. Unlike the Taliban and some other regimes which exhibit paranoia about vaccination campaigns, DAASH claims to be more ‘modern” and actively promotes polio-vaccination in its areas to try stop its spread.
There are no plans to attack Europe or “other places”.
With one exception,
With respect to exactly how DAASH intends to liberate Palestine, the Iraqi’s and now the Obama administration is in possession of an encyclopedia of information about detailed DAASH plans, and tactics it will confront the Zionist occupiers with, according to a congressional staffer via email with this observer. Reportedly the employment of large numbers of militarily untrained foreign volunteers as suicide bombers, moving on foot wearing suicide vests, or driving vehicles packed with explosives is just the tip of a deep iceberg of what DAASH is planning…
The visiting Professor of International Law at the Faculty of Law, Damascus University comments,
Time will reveal if DAASH achieves one or both of its objectives. Many believe if they eject the Zionist regime from Palestine, the expanding Islamist group will set in motion historic currents that in all likelihood will be rather different from the Ehud Omert-Condeleeza Rice fantasy of “a New Middle East.
One feels deep disgust at anybody relishing the kind of ‘liberation’ ISIS would bring to Israel.
Certainly it would be unlikely to involve fun days and all the ice-cream you can eat.
(1) Compare: Video: Al-Qa’ida holds family fun day in war torn Aleppo (2013).
Lamb also writes for the anti-Semitic ‘Veterans Today’ website. http://thespanishprisoner.com/2014/04/05/gilad-atzmon-and-veterans-today-declare-war-on-the-weimar-republic/
The Spanish Prisoner
June 22, 2014 at 11:46 am
Thanks for that Spanish.
Veterans Today stands out immediately as rabidly extreme right.
Troofer material about 9/11, Bilderberg and the rest.
“Every year, the world’s most powerful people meet in secret. Their agenda: total world domination. Big media observe a near-total blackout.
It sounds like dystopian science fiction, or a conspiracy theorist’s worst nightmare.
The strangest part is that it’s true. The 2011 destabilization of Syria, the 9/11/2008 Goldman-Sachs-led controlled demolition of the world economy, and probably even the 9/11 false flag events were all plotted or okayed by the Bilderbergers.”
By Kevin Barrett, Veterans Today Editor, for Press TV
http://www.veteranstoday.com/2014/06/06/b-berg/
What are left-wingers doing writing for a journal that publishes people close to such types?
Andrew Coates
June 22, 2014 at 12:27 pm
How will this nuclear bomb discriminate between Zionists and Palestinians?
s4r4hbrown
June 22, 2014 at 3:32 pm
Lamb believes the following, (headed by a picture of Arab desert cavalry titled, The School of Heroism and Sacrifice)
Karbala, Calvary: pillars of Resistance inspiring activists in West.
“While Ashura, a day of mourning and atonement among Shia Muslim, is not yet a national holiday among Christians globally, but Christians and Sunni Muslims increasingly accept the messages of Karbala, originally thought to be for the Muslims and the legacy of Calvary, from the Christian tradition.
Theologians and scholars who believe in the relevance and modern day applications of the teachings from religious texts from centuries past, have for years noted the remarkable similarities between the inspiration for humanity from the events at Karbala in the 7th Century (in modern day Iraq) and those at Calvary in the 1st century (in modern day occupied Palestine). But it is not just among the serious students of religion that Karbala and Calvary appear linked.”
“At Karbala and Calvary two sainted martyrs for resistance and justice, Hussein Ibn Ali and Jesus (Issa) of Nazareth sacrificed themselves and inspired humanity, their deaths helping to create and advance the two major religions as codes of humanitarian conduct. These events are among the reasons that Western Christians and Muslims are now, after waiting too long, uniting to resist the occupation of Palestine. ”
More on this here: http://www.presstv.com/detail/2012/11/20/273536/karbala-calvary-resistance-pillars/
I get the impression Sarah that Lamb believes in an eschatological vision of the end of Israel.
Death where will be thy sting?
The dead will all descend to heaven or descend to hell.
God, not the Bomb, is in charge of this.
Andrew Coates
June 22, 2014 at 3:46 pm
I think that we should differentiate between what the jihadists want to do and what they are actually capable of doing.
The chatter about demolishing Israel is just that, even if they replaced Hamas in Gaza — which is highly unlikely — all they could do would be to lob the odd rocket — and get a stiff air-raid in response. On the other hand, they could engage in further anti-Semitic outrages in Europe.
Could the jihadists actually seize state power? The only places where they have made any real gains are in countries which have suffered a statal or societal breakdown — such as Iraq and Somalia, and perhaps in Syria, although things haven’t finished there yet. For all this stuff about repairing infrastructure, cheap bus services and bouncy castles for the kids, there is no evidence that they can do anything but stop what remains of society totally disintegrating. Thus they can, under certain conditions, obtain power but are unable to rebuild the broken-down society that is a precondition to their taking power. If the current Sunni revolt succeeds in taking over in parts of Iraq, the sundry factions making up the leadership will inevitably come to blows, as they are pretty much incompatible — jihadists and Ba’athists especially. And rebuilding society would undermine the conditions that enable them to get in control in the first place.
What jihadists can do is to be a destructive force where the writ of the nation-state is weak or lacking credibility, as in Northern Nigeria, or where the state has collapsed. Where they have foreign backing, they are able to help destabilise a weak state or one under attack (Syria); but as freelancers without state backing they can be destructive or a nuisance, but no more than that. To announce a World Caliphate in Iraq would immediately lead to their being disavowed by Saudi Arabia, as the Saudis claim and jealously guard that role.
The biggest danger they pose outside the Islamic countries is via an ideological campaign to increase anti-Muslim sentiments in Europe and the USA through carrying out terror attacks. Here, they have been successful in driving a wedge between Muslims and non-Muslims, promoting the idea that Muslims are all bomb-throwing lunatics. If a bomb in a public place kills and injures people and leads to an upsurge of anti-Islamic feeling, then this is a success for them, for they wish to divide Muslims from everyone else, as this will — they hope — encourage Muslims to feel ever more persecuted, and become more devout and hostile to the rest of the world.
Dr Paul
June 22, 2014 at 6:51 pm
No doubt the Palestinians will all run away before the bomb is dropped (tipped off beforehand), and the massive population movements of the present moment will be as nothing. He does say that ‘Palestine’ will be decontaminated before they are allowed back. Any one told him about fallout? or prevailing winds? I suppose given Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Chernoblyl etc, it may be feasible for a mad man to believe in throwing nuclear bombs around.
Sue R
June 22, 2014 at 7:54 pm
gergeve
June 28, 2014 at 4:13 am
[…] 1. On Franklin Lamb and France’s Assad supporters: […]
Left/right convergence in France | Anti-National Translation
June 28, 2014 at 11:07 am
gergeve:
Nobody is going to read your very lengthy diatribe. Only a few lines tells you that. Waste yourself.
pinkie
June 8, 2015 at 6:13 pm