Dividing the baby – Part Two of Three

This is part two of a three-part newsletter.

 

Syria is in the throes of upheaval. Will this birth something good, or are we beholding a new explosion of jihadi attacks? Who are the main players here? What are their strategies, their short and long-term goals? How can the Scriptures help us to understand and be redemptively pro-active in our response? 

 

 

“Like a roaring lion is a wicked ruler over a poor people” (Proverbs 28:15)

 

 

Father and son, Hafez and Bashar al-Assad – successive Presidents of Syria – were a mini-dynasty ruling Damascus with an iron hand for 54 years. The name ‘Assad’ in Arabic means ‘lion’ and, like the proverbial Middle Eastern lion, the Assad family has torn the flesh of their Syrian people most cruelly for over half a century years. Examples include:

 

 

• the concentration-camp style torture chambers of Tadmur and Mezzeh prisons, where opponents of the regime as well as many innocents were massacred and tortured (with atrocities overseen by Nazi torturers who had survived WWII and then escaped to Syria)

 

• the specific Tadmur prison massacres carried out by Hafez al-Assad’s brother Rifaat, where over 1,000 prisoners were killed indiscriminately, one day after a Muslim Brotherhood assassination attempt on the life of Hafez al-Assad

 

• chemical warfare attacks using sarin-equipped rockets on civilians in Khan al-Assal (26 fatalities; March 19, 2013) and in Ghouta (over 1,700 murdered’ August 21, 2013), targeting civilians and Sunni jihadi rebels

 

• the Hamma massacres (in biblical Hammat; see 1 Kings 4:21-4; 2 Chronicles 8:4; 1 Kings 8:65): genocidal massacres of 40,000 civilians in 1982. Hafez al-Assad’s decision to exterminate a small group of Muslim Brotherhood (MB) rebels within that city, by mass murder of Hama’s citizens.. The MB later gave birth to offshoots Hamas and al-Qa’eda 

 

• the ‘Shabiha’ (‘ghosts’) Assad government irregulars and terror squads numbering up to 10,000; responsible for the Houla and al-Qubair massacres (May-June 2012)

 

• The Syrian National Defense Forces were created and overseen by Iranian master-terrorist Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani in November 2012, as a primarily Alawi paramilitary militia aimed at crushing and terrorizing both Syria’s Sunni rebels and the Islamic State. They received training and funding from Hezbollah and Iran, and were responsible for much murder during the Syrian Civil War (2011-15).

 

• One of President Assad’s most feared commandos was Talal Dakkak, a member of Assad’s 25^th Special Missions Forces Divisions (the ‘Tiger Forces’). Dakkak was known to feed rebel prisoners to Assad’s pet lion.

 

• A comprehensive list of all massacres committed by the Assad dynasty in Syria can be found here – a combined approximate total of 50,000 deaths

 

The cruelty manifested in Syria, both by the Assads and later by Islamic State, al-Nusra Front and al Qa’eda, speak of the God of Jacob’s prophetic word over both Ishmael (whose descendants lived in the Saudi Arabian region) and the people he would influence throughout the Middle East, from Egypt through to Iraq/Assyria:

 

• “But he will be a wild donkey of a man. His hand will be against everyone, and everyone’s hand will be against him. And he will live in defiance of all his brothers” (Genesis 16:12)

 

• “They settled from Havilah to Shur which is east of Egypt going toward Assyria; he settled in defiance of all his relatives” (Genesis 25:18)

 

 

Can a leopard change its spots?

 

“Syria’s Ba’ath party announced Wednesday December 11 [2024] it was suspending work indefinitely,” reports Agence France Presse from Paris. It is truly the end of an era.

 

The regions of Syria and Iraq have been struck by Islamist jihadi ‘earthquakes’ over the past 40 or so years, as colonialist country borders drawn up by Western powers began to collapse one after the other (along with their kings and dictators). ‘Islam is the solution!’ was the chant brought to the table starting in the mid-1920’s by jihadi revolutionaries, theologians and activists like Hassan al-Banna (founder of the Muslim Brotherhood), Sayyid Qutb (whose writings inspired al Qa’eda) and Abdullah Azzam (the founder of al Qa’eda and Osama bin Laden’s teacher). These Islamist leaders called for jihad against the Jewish people, the destruction of the state of Israel and of the ‘Christian’ West.  Their teachings and radical jihadi militarism birthed the terrorist movements which convulse the world today.

 

Sometimes these jihadi movements went through severe splits, as personalities and strategies clashed.  In the same way as Leonid Trotsky and Joseph Stalin clashed over the politically correct order of Communist revolution (Was it first ‘world revolution’ or ‘first a true communist state in Russia’), so Sunni jihadi leaders clashed over whether or not apostate and less zealous jihadi leaders (including Shiite movements, which are seen as heretical by Sunni jihadis) needed to be crushed before Israel should be totally eliminated. So a split developed between al Qa’eda and Islamic State (Da’esh/ ISIL/ ISIS) regarding jihad priorities and focus on destroying Iran and Shi’ite Islam.

 

This split is an important key to understanding why the Syrian ‘rebels’ (Islamic State, al Qa’eda, etc.) are murderously opposed to Shi’ite Iran; opposed to the Iranian-supported pro-Assad Alawites (for their religious expressions are considered to be vile and heretical by Islamic State); and even opposed to Hamas (whose Islamist credentials are disparaged by the extremely zealous Islamic State). The splits between these groups have crystallized even more during the Syrian Civil War (ongoing since 2011). For anyone who wants to make sense of the jihadi cacophony going on in today’s Syria, here is a helpful list of the armed factions involved in that war.

 

Syria and Iraq’s jihadi terror groups have split into at least 15 different sects, and many of these have spent much time and energy fighting others on this list. Here is a list of twelve of these divided jihadi organizations:

 

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mujahideen_Shura_Council_(Iraq)
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jama%27at_al-Tawhid_wal-Jihad
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Qaeda_in_Iraq
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jund_al-Sham
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_State_of_Iraq
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_State
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Nusra_Front
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Army_of_Conquest
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaysh_al-Islam
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_Front_(Syria)
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahrar_al-Sham
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Army_of_Conquest

 

The jihadi group which has taken over much of Syria (and whose leader Abu Mohammad al-Julani gave a victory speech in the Great Umayyad Mosque in Damascus on December 8 2024) is an amalgam of previous jihadi Syrian groups – most notably the ‘al Nusra Front’/’Jabhat al-Nusra’ (‘Support Front for the Conquest’) which was at one time an official branch of al Qa’eda. Over the years this group again changed its name once more to ‘Jabhat Fatah al-Sham’ (‘Front for the Conquest of the Levant’) and finally to ‘Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham’ (‘Organization for the Liberation of the Levant’; abbreviated HTS).

 

Because of these name changes, and the political jockeying that has gone on behind the scenes as associations with al Qa’eda or Islamic State did not always prove helpful in getting Western support and armaments, many in the West are confused and are getting deceived as to whether or not these groups have abandoned jihadi activities. The quiet and deliberate smooth-talking spokesman for HTS is Abu Mohammad al-Julani, the ‘nom de guerre’ of the Syrian jihadi terrorist who heads up the present organization as its ‘Emir’ (‘prince,’ ‘chief,’ ‘ruler’ or ‘commander’ in Arabic). Al Julani’s father lived on the Golan Heights many years ago, and the patronym ‘Julani’ indicates that the person in question has lived on the Golan. Al Julani’s birth name is Ahmed Hussein al-Sharaa, and he was born in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in 1982.

 

In May 2013 the US State Department listed al-Julani as a ‘Specially Designated Global Terrorist,’ and four years later announced a $10 million reward for information leading to his capture. On September 28 2014 al-Julani released an audio tape, declaring that he would fight the “United States and its allies” and urged his fighters not to accept any help from the West in their battles. In 2018 he announced on CNN that his jihadi goal is to overthrow Syria,  In recent years however, he has attempted to sell a more moderate view of himself, suggesting he has no desire to wage war against Western nations.

 

On Sunday, December 8 2024, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for the Middle East Daniel Shapiro told the Manama Dialogue security conference in Bahrain, that “the United States will continue to maintain its presence in eastern Syria and will take measures necessary to prevent a resurgence of the Islamic State.” Speaking hours after Syrian rebels ‘Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham’ (HTS) announced they had toppled Bashar al-Assad’s regime, “Shapiro called on all parties to protect civilians, particularly minorities, and respect international norms.”

 

Shapira’s comments reveal a staggering diplomatic blindness, because the Islamic State has resurged. They are ruling in Damascus, and they do not respect international norms – they only respect Shari’a norms.

 

“Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots? Then you as well can do good who are accustomed to doing evil” (Jeremiah 13:23)

 

 

He who pays the piper calls the tune

 

Al-Julani’s and HTS’s commitments to world jihad, to the destruction of Israel and the Jewish people, to the implementation of Sharia Islamic law (think beheadings, stoning and public whippings for adultery, amputations for theft, slavery, enslaving of all non-Muslims, no equality of civil rights for Christians) – these are part and parcel of their Islamist worldview. Al-Julani’s commitment (and that of his ‘Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham’ – HTS) to radical Islam is unshakeable – like that of the Taliban in Afghanistan or that of the government of Qatar who hosts Hamas and subsidizes ‘Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham’ (HTS) – even while hosting U.S. CENTCOM and the Fifth Fleet, and throwing a world-wide party for FIFA at the 2022 World Cup football matches).

 

For those who have ears to hear and eyes to see, al-Julani’s dissimulation and deception regarding their classical Islamist agenda is visible to all. ‘Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham’ (HTS) is heavily supported by Turkey, which is also a bone fide member of NATO.  A few brief years ago, when ‘Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham’ (HTS) was still know by its former name the ‘al Nusra Front’/‘Jabhat al-Nusra,’ Qatar was an active funder of its terror activities. In 2015 the British newspaper ‘The Independent’ reported that Saudi Arabia and Turkey were “focusing their backing for the Syrian rebels on the combined Jaish al-Fatah . . .  a command structure for jihadist groups in Syria that [included] Jabhat al-Nusra” (found in the article ‘Turkey and Saudi Arabia alarm the West by backing Islamist extremists the Americans had bombed in Syria).

 

The Emir of Qatar publicly admitted, in an interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour (‘Qatar’s Emir: We don’t fund terrorists’), that he doesn’t always see eye to eye with American terrorist designations: “I know that in America and some countries they look at some movements as terrorist movements . . . But there are differences. There are differences that some countries and some people that any group which comes from Islamic background are terrorists. And we don’t accept that. It would be a ‘big mistake’ to consider every Islamic movement to be ‘extremists.’”

 

In October 2014, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden told students at the Harvard Kennedy School: “The Turks … the Saudis, the Emirates, etc., what were they doing? They were so determined to take down Assad and essentially have a proxy Sunni-Shia war – what did they do? They poured hundreds of millions of dollars and . . .  thousands of tons of weapons into anyone who would fight against Assad, except that the people who were being supplied were al-Nusra, and al Qaeda, and the extremist elements of jihadis coming from other parts of the world.”

 

In 2015, The Independent reported that Saudi Arabia and Turkey were “focusing their backing for the Syrian rebels on the combined Jaish al-Fatah, or the Army of Conquest, a command structure for jihadist groups in Syria that [included] Jabhat al-Nusra.”

 

The Consortium Against Terror Finance (CATF) suggests that the U.S. turned a blind eye to Qatar’s funding of al-Nusra because al-Nusra was one of the only groups threatening both ISIS and Syria’s Assad (‘Funding Al Nusra Through Ransom: Qatar and the Myth of “Humanitarian Principle”’).

 

 

The proof of the pudding

 

Live television feeds over the past week have shown how HTS  jihadi terrorists have been indiscriminately beating and shooting Druze, Kurdish and Shi’ite soldiers who have surrendered to the Sunni forces. They have burned the tomb of former President Hafez al-Assad, and hanged his nephew Suleiman Hilal al-Assad in Latakia. The behavior of HTS soldiers is totally in line with how Islamic State operatives attacked, tortured, beheaded and kidnapped Yazidis in Iraq and Christians in Syria and Egypt/Libya during the Syrian Civil War of 2011-15. The proof of HTS ‘s practical affiliation with the deeds of Islamic State is seen in how they are manifesting the same cruel behavior.

 

On December 8 2024, ‘Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham’ (HTS) Islamist soldiers stood outside the Great Umayyad Mosque in Damascus and shouted to the cameramen:

 

 

• “This is the heart of the Abode of Islam. This is Damascus, the [land of] Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz, the land of Islam. This is Damascus. This is the Camp of the Muslims. From here we are coming, O Jerusalem! Be patient, O people of Gaza. Say Allah Akbar [Ullah is greater]!” Allah Akbar! We respond to your call, O Al-Aqsa!” [the mosque on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount].  ”We have entered Damascus and the Umayyad Mosque, shouting ‘Allah Akbar! There is no god but Allah! . . . Just like that, Allah willing, we will enter the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the Prophet’s Mosque [in Medina], and the Kaaba [in Mecca]. We will enter these [mosques], Allah willing.”

 

The bloodthirsty roaring of HTS gunmen in Damascus accurately reflects both their burning desire and their military goals: this jihadi army will not rest, will not stop, until they have conquered the Jewish state and seized the Jewish Temple Mount, breaking Jewish control over the capital of the Jewish people. Then after Jerusalem, they intend to conquer Mecca and Saudi Arabia from the hands of those Muslims who they consider weak in their religious convictions and practice. The forces of Islamic State are gathering at the northern borders of Israel, hoping to crush Christians, moderate Muslims and all Jews. This situation is definitely a Middle Eastern call to prayer!

 

 

How shall we then pray?

 

• Pray for revelation and courage to be given to Israel’s leaders in political, intelligence and military spheres – to understand and counteract strategies against Israel, the apple of God’s eye (Zechariah 2:8) – as Islamic State/al Qa’eda armies gather at our borders.

 

• Pray that enemy strategies against the Jewish people and their state, against Middle East Christians and other minorities – will be confounded, and that a great harvest would take place in all of these areas!

 

• Pray for the protection of Israeli and Jewish people from the assaults of jihadi terror organizations and Western fellow-travelers

 

• Pray for the return of the Jewish people to both the Land and the Messiah of Israel

 

• Pray for the physical rescue of the approximately 44 to 50 living Israeli hostages (including babies) kidnapped by Hamas, Islamic Jihad and PFLP/PLO.  At this moment some of these hostages are being tortured, raped and starved (this based on testimonies of recently released hostages). Sadly, over 100 of all Israeli hostages are dead; Hamas is holding on to their corpses as cold storage bargaining chips

 

• Pray for the raising up of Ezekiel’s prophetic Jewish army throughout the earth

 

 

Your prayers and support hold up our arms and are the very practical enablement of God to us in the work He has called us to do.

 

In Messiah Yeshua,

 

Avner Boskey
 
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