1 00:00:38,270 --> 00:00:40,910 Kovac, Amassia, and thank you for joining me in the trenches. 2 00:00:41,430 --> 00:00:42,550 Oh, thank you so much for having me. 3 00:00:42,550 --> 00:00:43,710 It's a great pleasure, my friend. 4 00:00:44,320 --> 00:00:47,040 We have built a number of friendships over the last few 5 00:00:47,040 --> 00:00:48,120 years. Thanks. 6 00:00:48,280 --> 00:00:50,400 Thanks actually to the whole lockdown thing. 7 00:00:50,600 --> 00:00:53,640 Indeed. And back then, this was an 8 00:00:53,680 --> 00:00:58,040 opportunity, in my opinion, for the people to come together and 9 00:00:58,040 --> 00:01:03,760 connect together, especially that that era was supposed and 10 00:01:03,960 --> 00:01:07,040 it was planned to separate between the people, to find 11 00:01:07,040 --> 00:01:10,840 vertical lines among the people, to turn the people against each 12 00:01:10,840 --> 00:01:13,480 other. So we needed also a coalition of 13 00:01:13,600 --> 00:01:18,720 people, let's say, to push back against the trend of turning the 14 00:01:18,720 --> 00:01:21,520 people against each other so that they would be busy with 15 00:01:21,520 --> 00:01:25,440 these side fights. Meanwhile, the people in power, 16 00:01:25,440 --> 00:01:27,880 they're grabbing all the power and all the money from the 17 00:01:27,880 --> 00:01:29,640 people. Meanwhile, we were discussing if 18 00:01:29,640 --> 00:01:33,400 we should wear a mask or not. If I look at my work as a 19 00:01:33,400 --> 00:01:37,000 political cartoonist, I mean, I've got books published. 20 00:01:37,880 --> 00:01:43,480 I was very, very mainstream in my views and I've only swung in 21 00:01:43,480 --> 00:01:47,200 the last few years. And what worries me is why is it 22 00:01:47,200 --> 00:01:49,120 that I held those views and not just me? 23 00:01:49,120 --> 00:01:53,480 Why is it that so many in the mainstream held perhaps the 24 00:01:53,480 --> 00:01:55,840 wrong side of history views? Is that is that a? 25 00:01:55,840 --> 00:01:58,160 Is that a result of just Western propaganda? 26 00:01:59,600 --> 00:02:04,720 I just want to say that I have never intended to become an 27 00:02:04,720 --> 00:02:08,400 expert on Syria. This was not even in the corner 28 00:02:08,400 --> 00:02:12,640 of my head or I didn't want to, let's say hyper focus on one 29 00:02:12,640 --> 00:02:16,600 issue. It was the imposed war on us in 30 00:02:16,600 --> 00:02:20,000 Syria and the injustices inflicted upon the Syrian 31 00:02:20,000 --> 00:02:23,400 people. When you are, for example, in 32 00:02:23,400 --> 00:02:29,520 2012 at the beginning of the war, you're in Aleppo and you 33 00:02:29,520 --> 00:02:33,000 see with your own objective eye something is happening in front 34 00:02:33,000 --> 00:02:36,240 of your eyes. And then when you turn on your 35 00:02:36,440 --> 00:02:41,960 TV to the mainstream press and especially Al Jazeera or the 36 00:02:41,960 --> 00:02:47,360 English speaking TV outlets, because I used to also speak 37 00:02:47,360 --> 00:02:51,040 English back then, you notice a stark difference. 38 00:02:51,040 --> 00:02:56,640 There is sometimes an 180° difference between what is 39 00:02:56,640 --> 00:02:59,240 happening on the ground and what they're reporting. 40 00:02:59,560 --> 00:03:03,800 So this starts like, out of curiosity, why are they doing 41 00:03:03,800 --> 00:03:08,680 this? I thought that the naive me back 42 00:03:08,680 --> 00:03:13,400 then in 2012, so we're talking about 13 years ago, that maybe 43 00:03:13,400 --> 00:03:16,320 they don't know. Maybe these journalists really 44 00:03:16,480 --> 00:03:20,920 do not know what is happening. So what I did, basically, I 45 00:03:20,920 --> 00:03:23,760 contacted the mainstream journalists. 46 00:03:24,520 --> 00:03:32,200 I contacted Abu Adaman of CNN, I contacted Hala Gorani of CNN and 47 00:03:32,200 --> 00:03:34,920 back then one of them was in Damascus. 48 00:03:35,680 --> 00:03:41,360 So I received a phone call and from the CNN journalist asking 49 00:03:41,360 --> 00:03:44,800 me what happened today in Aleppo because there was a anti assault 50 00:03:44,800 --> 00:03:46,880 protest somewhere and I reported about it. 51 00:03:47,440 --> 00:03:50,480 I told her what I saw with my own objective eyes. 52 00:03:51,120 --> 00:03:56,280 And at night when I read the article on CNN, for me it was 53 00:03:56,680 --> 00:04:00,600 this, you know, the shock factor that all of a sudden you see 54 00:04:00,600 --> 00:04:04,440 that you told her something and she reported completely 55 00:04:04,440 --> 00:04:07,600 something else. So I started questioning, like, 56 00:04:08,120 --> 00:04:11,720 are they really doing this on purpose or not? 57 00:04:12,400 --> 00:04:15,880 So since then I started, I created a group on Facebook 58 00:04:15,880 --> 00:04:17,920 called Syria Now News and Analysis. 59 00:04:17,920 --> 00:04:20,440 Back then, it wasn't Syria Analysis, it was called Syria 60 00:04:20,440 --> 00:04:22,079 Now. So we're reporting what's 61 00:04:22,079 --> 00:04:23,600 happening in Syria now in English. 62 00:04:24,440 --> 00:04:30,280 And since then, people started to look to alternative news 63 00:04:30,280 --> 00:04:34,240 sources, coming to Facebook to read in the group what I and 64 00:04:34,240 --> 00:04:37,280 other people are posting there. But this was more like an 65 00:04:37,280 --> 00:04:40,360 activism because we were very young and we were very, you 66 00:04:40,360 --> 00:04:43,880 know, like, let's say, sensational more than we're 67 00:04:43,880 --> 00:04:47,080 trying to deliver all the facts because we want only to debunk 68 00:04:47,080 --> 00:04:48,560 what the mainstream media is doing. 69 00:04:48,560 --> 00:04:53,520 But this has developed through time that you become at the 70 00:04:53,520 --> 00:04:58,160 point where you can stay as an activist or you take one step 71 00:04:58,160 --> 00:05:03,320 ahead and study the the documents, for example, leaked 72 00:05:03,320 --> 00:05:08,760 by the American memos, defence intelligence agencies, CIA 73 00:05:08,760 --> 00:05:12,520 leaked documents, books, reading and reading to understand all 74 00:05:12,520 --> 00:05:16,920 these things. I had professors and I had 75 00:05:16,920 --> 00:05:19,520 mentors. Lots of people were teaching me 76 00:05:19,520 --> 00:05:23,280 Syria. But the political analysis of 77 00:05:23,280 --> 00:05:29,520 what is happening now in the country is, in my opinion, you 78 00:05:29,520 --> 00:05:33,800 cannot really rely on scholars. And on the theories and the 79 00:05:33,800 --> 00:05:37,160 people who studied the books studied the history of Syria 80 00:05:37,160 --> 00:05:41,400 because most of the people in my experience were. 81 00:05:41,920 --> 00:05:44,040 I call them prisoners of the. Books. 82 00:05:44,880 --> 00:05:49,200 So you have a professor who studied 15 years as a historian, 83 00:05:49,200 --> 00:05:53,480 political science, etcetera, but he studied it through the books 84 00:05:54,360 --> 00:05:58,320 and who have who has written these books and why these books 85 00:05:58,760 --> 00:06:01,280 exist in the library and not other books. 86 00:06:01,600 --> 00:06:04,920 So I started questioning a lot. So I went into this rabbit hole. 87 00:06:05,120 --> 00:06:10,480 Why this professor is telling me who is my supervisor that what 88 00:06:10,480 --> 00:06:12,840 is happening in Syria is a democratic revolution. 89 00:06:12,840 --> 00:06:15,560 Meanwhile my eyes tell it's otherwise, right? 90 00:06:16,240 --> 00:06:22,560 So I, I, I, I went into this phase of rebellion, let's say 91 00:06:22,560 --> 00:06:27,680 against this establishment, academia and historians and like 92 00:06:27,880 --> 00:06:32,160 the, the, the so called strategic experts, like they 93 00:06:32,160 --> 00:06:37,320 host them on TV outlets. So I told to myself that this is 94 00:06:37,320 --> 00:06:42,040 an opportunity for me. To become someone who is giving 95 00:06:42,040 --> 00:06:46,080 people also solid facts about what is going on in Syria, even 96 00:06:46,080 --> 00:06:49,240 if these solid facts are sometimes subjective. 97 00:06:49,760 --> 00:06:53,600 Because this is my opinion based on certain realities which I saw 98 00:06:53,600 --> 00:06:57,640 in my own eyes and then. You see, after 7-8 years of 99 00:06:57,640 --> 00:07:01,680 consistent work like you, you are daily telling them what is 100 00:07:01,680 --> 00:07:05,120 going on not only in Syria but the Middle East reporting. 101 00:07:05,280 --> 00:07:09,320 I have over 1000, 10 or 1020 videos on on YouTube. 102 00:07:10,120 --> 00:07:14,840 So people are not stupid. People can see patterns. 103 00:07:14,840 --> 00:07:21,120 People can see that after seven years, someone X who works for a 104 00:07:21,120 --> 00:07:26,240 think tank that receives funding from government A, Government B, 105 00:07:26,240 --> 00:07:32,120 Donor A, donor B, which he has basically invested interest in 106 00:07:32,120 --> 00:07:36,160 Syria, unlike someone who comes from Syria and he's telling you 107 00:07:36,160 --> 00:07:40,680 something on his YouTube channel whose sole funding are the 108 00:07:40,680 --> 00:07:44,000 people watching it. There is a big difference for 109 00:07:44,000 --> 00:07:47,880 them to see that when I say if this happens, then this will 110 00:07:47,880 --> 00:07:50,840 lead into this. And then in a few days or a few 111 00:07:50,840 --> 00:07:55,240 weeks when they see that what I predicted based on these 112 00:07:55,240 --> 00:07:58,960 realities that I'm trying to discuss actually happened, they 113 00:07:58,960 --> 00:08:01,960 say, OK, what predicted it. But it's not like prediction 114 00:08:01,960 --> 00:08:05,360 based on reading the stars. It's a prediction based on 115 00:08:05,360 --> 00:08:08,280 reading the sequences of events and knowing the history of the 116 00:08:08,280 --> 00:08:13,120 region, which is basically turning out to be to be true. 117 00:08:13,360 --> 00:08:16,920 So that's how you gain credibility among the people and 118 00:08:16,920 --> 00:08:18,920 that's why the people. TuneIn and they call you an 119 00:08:18,920 --> 00:08:23,320 expert on Syria, although. I had no intention at all to 120 00:08:23,320 --> 00:08:27,280 become an expert on this issue. My dream was to become a 121 00:08:27,280 --> 00:08:30,040 diplomat representing my country in the UN. 122 00:08:30,400 --> 00:08:33,480 My dream was to become an ambassador representing the 123 00:08:33,480 --> 00:08:36,840 interests of my country. But those are all faded away. 124 00:08:36,840 --> 00:08:40,919 I'm not like regretting to to have this current career, but in 125 00:08:40,919 --> 00:08:44,480 an ideal world I wouldn't have become someone talking on 126 00:08:44,480 --> 00:08:47,120 YouTube. I would have been a diplomat for 127 00:08:47,120 --> 00:08:51,000 sure. When I was on Alex Jones's show 128 00:08:52,040 --> 00:08:56,680 recently, he called me an expert and I said I'm not an expert. 129 00:08:56,680 --> 00:08:59,400 And he said no, no. If you live there and you 130 00:08:59,400 --> 00:09:07,040 experience something that is certainly a metric by which you 131 00:09:07,040 --> 00:09:11,240 can be referred to as an expert. And I think that's quite, quite 132 00:09:11,240 --> 00:09:15,040 true because everybody these days is an expert and they've 133 00:09:15,040 --> 00:09:19,400 never even been or spent time in the area that they are reporting 134 00:09:19,400 --> 00:09:20,760 on. Yes. 135 00:09:21,280 --> 00:09:25,000 Look that that it is very important for someone, for 136 00:09:25,000 --> 00:09:30,360 example, if this someone wants to become an expert on Syria, to 137 00:09:30,400 --> 00:09:33,560 at least know the communities in Syria. 138 00:09:33,560 --> 00:09:36,000 Syrians are not like one unique people. 139 00:09:36,760 --> 00:09:41,400 There is this a concept that Syria is. 140 00:09:42,000 --> 00:09:44,960 Like a nation, and I would like to say something about this, 141 00:09:45,440 --> 00:09:48,960 Syria has never been a nation historically. 142 00:09:49,200 --> 00:09:53,160 We spoke this also offline. The history of Syria goes to the 143 00:09:53,160 --> 00:09:55,120 biblical times, and we know that Damas very. 144 00:09:55,120 --> 00:09:56,960 Important. It's an extremely important 145 00:09:56,960 --> 00:10:00,080 country, yeah. Yes, but there was no state 146 00:10:00,240 --> 00:10:03,960 called Syria in history, right? And this is a new construct 147 00:10:03,960 --> 00:10:06,560 after the independence of Syria from the French occupier. 148 00:10:06,560 --> 00:10:11,120 But Damascus, for example, the current capital of Syria, is the 149 00:10:11,160 --> 00:10:13,680 oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. 150 00:10:14,200 --> 00:10:16,360 It is. It was mentioned early in the 151 00:10:16,360 --> 00:10:21,400 Bible, for example in Genesis 14, 15 and is closely associated 152 00:10:21,400 --> 00:10:26,200 with Abraham whose servant Eliser was from Damascus. 153 00:10:26,200 --> 00:10:29,160 It is also attributed to the conversion of some Paul. 154 00:10:29,440 --> 00:10:35,200 So Paul who underwrote to Damascus, he converted and this 155 00:10:35,200 --> 00:10:37,760 was a pivotal moment in New Testament history. 156 00:10:38,120 --> 00:10:40,880 For example, Syria nowadays includes. 157 00:10:42,200 --> 00:10:46,360 A town called Malula, and Malula is up until this moment they 158 00:10:46,360 --> 00:10:49,560 speak Aramaic, which is the language of Jesus Christ. 159 00:10:50,040 --> 00:10:55,520 So it has a big significance from historical and biblical 160 00:10:55,520 --> 00:10:57,000 perspective. I understand it. 161 00:10:57,920 --> 00:11:03,480 But there was no empire which said this is Syria and this was 162 00:11:03,480 --> 00:11:07,440 the Syrian empire. This was a new construct after 163 00:11:07,480 --> 00:11:13,440 the French mandate. So in this case we had different 164 00:11:13,600 --> 00:11:17,120 types of tribes, people, sects, religions, ethnicities, 165 00:11:17,120 --> 00:11:20,040 etcetera. The French came and said, so we 166 00:11:20,040 --> 00:11:25,040 decided today that you guys are all Syrians, you know, and this 167 00:11:25,040 --> 00:11:28,520 was something that was very new. For the Syrians to have a 168 00:11:28,520 --> 00:11:31,920 national identity because before that they lived on the French 169 00:11:31,920 --> 00:11:35,840 occupation and before that 400 years of Ottoman occupation, and 170 00:11:35,840 --> 00:11:40,760 before that Umayyad and Abbasid and Safaid and so many other, 171 00:11:41,560 --> 00:11:45,760 the Greeks and Romans, so many different empires passed through 172 00:11:45,760 --> 00:11:49,720 Syria. Now, under side circumstances, 173 00:11:49,720 --> 00:11:53,600 we have a new country where you have over 2223 different 174 00:11:53,600 --> 00:11:56,400 components coming together calling themselves Syrians. 175 00:11:56,760 --> 00:12:00,240 Right. So if you're not in Syria and if 176 00:12:00,240 --> 00:12:03,520 you haven't socialised with these different people, you will 177 00:12:03,520 --> 00:12:08,520 not know that the people in the resort are very different from 178 00:12:08,520 --> 00:12:11,320 the people in Aleppo. You will not know that the 179 00:12:11,320 --> 00:12:13,880 people in Aleppo are very different from the people in 180 00:12:13,880 --> 00:12:17,680 Damascus, very different. And they, we speak the same 181 00:12:17,680 --> 00:12:20,680 language with different dialects, but we have different 182 00:12:20,680 --> 00:12:22,600 mentalities. We have different cuisines, we 183 00:12:22,600 --> 00:12:24,360 have different cultures, we have different music. 184 00:12:24,920 --> 00:12:26,960 It's, it's a mosaic, as we call it. 185 00:12:26,960 --> 00:12:29,200 It sounds like South Africa. Exactly. 186 00:12:29,840 --> 00:12:35,720 But but the difference is that after World War 2, Syrians were 187 00:12:35,720 --> 00:12:40,880 given this piece of land to, to govern themselves, right, 188 00:12:41,040 --> 00:12:43,960 Supposedly. But the Syrians have never 189 00:12:44,040 --> 00:12:47,120 governed themselves before. They were governed by other 190 00:12:47,120 --> 00:12:50,840 powers. So this was a new experience 191 00:12:50,840 --> 00:12:55,120 also for them to to manage a state and govern all these 192 00:12:55,120 --> 00:12:58,600 people together. That's why between the 1948, 193 00:12:58,600 --> 00:13:05,400 since the independence of Syria till 1970, this era was the most 194 00:13:05,440 --> 00:13:09,120 unstable era in the history of modern Syria because they 195 00:13:09,120 --> 00:13:11,880 witnessed around 10 coup d'etats. 196 00:13:12,480 --> 00:13:15,160 Like every two weeks somebody turns against each other and 197 00:13:15,160 --> 00:13:18,360 they're like, now I'm the leader, you have to worship me, 198 00:13:18,360 --> 00:13:20,960 you know? And here we have the Americans, 199 00:13:21,160 --> 00:13:25,600 the 11 of the first CIA LED. Coup d'etat in the history of 200 00:13:25,600 --> 00:13:30,160 the CIA was in Syria and they brought Houston Zaim as a 201 00:13:30,160 --> 00:13:34,200 president of the country because they wanted to for Syria to make 202 00:13:34,200 --> 00:13:38,560 peace with Israel and they were creating a Middle Eastern 203 00:13:38,560 --> 00:13:41,160 alliance, countries of alliances against the Soviet. 204 00:13:41,160 --> 00:13:44,240 Union and Syria back then rejected it, so they engineered 205 00:13:44,240 --> 00:13:47,280 the coup. The so the history of the coup 206 00:13:47,280 --> 00:13:50,920 d'etat and regime change operations goes back 7080 years 207 00:13:50,920 --> 00:13:54,160 back in history in Syria. It's nothing new, but these coup 208 00:13:54,160 --> 00:14:00,120 d'etats, after 10 coup d'etats, the last one was done by the 209 00:14:00,120 --> 00:14:05,360 father of Bashar Hafez al Assad. And since the 1970 Syria 210 00:14:05,360 --> 00:14:09,840 witnessed, let's say, political stability, which means there was 211 00:14:09,840 --> 00:14:14,280 a regime imposing its rule on the people, has established 212 00:14:14,280 --> 00:14:18,720 political authoritarianism. It has given the people the 213 00:14:19,640 --> 00:14:25,320 economic opportunity, cultural and societal freedoms. 214 00:14:25,640 --> 00:14:27,400 But don't come close to politics. 215 00:14:28,520 --> 00:14:36,560 We give you very cheap food, medication, fuel, healthcare. 216 00:14:36,800 --> 00:14:40,920 You study tool till PhD for free with good education. 217 00:14:41,800 --> 00:14:44,600 You get your fuel for very cheap prices. 218 00:14:44,600 --> 00:14:46,800 You get your meat for very cheap prices. 219 00:14:46,800 --> 00:14:51,840 People were happy mostly, but some people wanted more, wanted 220 00:14:51,840 --> 00:14:54,480 political freedoms. But then the political people 221 00:14:54,480 --> 00:14:57,520 who wanted political freedoms, they themselves were not 222 00:14:57,520 --> 00:14:59,680 Democrats. So this is the this is the 223 00:14:59,680 --> 00:15:03,240 problem with with Syria. The people who rise against the 224 00:15:03,240 --> 00:15:06,840 political authoritarianism in Syria under the leadership of 225 00:15:06,840 --> 00:15:10,720 Hafez, they themselves were not Democrats because they were 226 00:15:11,200 --> 00:15:12,960 belonging to the Muslim Brotherhood. 227 00:15:13,800 --> 00:15:18,080 And the Muslim Brotherhood never believed in democracy. 228 00:15:18,400 --> 00:15:21,160 They believed in elections to reach to power. 229 00:15:21,920 --> 00:15:25,400 Once they reach to power, which is like a train, you jump into 230 00:15:25,400 --> 00:15:29,400 the train, which is elections, you reach to power and then you 231 00:15:29,400 --> 00:15:33,000 jump out of the train and you create a theocracy. 232 00:15:33,320 --> 00:15:35,360 This is what Jolani is doing nowadays, right? 233 00:15:36,200 --> 00:15:39,560 Therefore, although Jolani didn't come with elections too, 234 00:15:39,560 --> 00:15:41,000 he came also after a coup d'etat. 235 00:15:41,000 --> 00:15:43,560 And this is something we could discuss later in our 236 00:15:43,560 --> 00:15:47,320 conversation. So under such circumstances, the 237 00:15:47,400 --> 00:15:51,160 Hafez regime, they cracked down on this Islamist scene, 238 00:15:51,360 --> 00:15:55,840 completely crashed them in 82 after they created an Islamic 239 00:15:55,880 --> 00:15:59,360 emirate in Syria, in Aleppo and in Hama, similar to what is 240 00:15:59,360 --> 00:16:02,160 happening nowadays now under Bashar. 241 00:16:02,400 --> 00:16:06,640 When Bashar came and succeeded power, he came from London. 242 00:16:06,640 --> 00:16:11,120 He is an ophthalmologist. He married Asma, who was born 243 00:16:11,120 --> 00:16:14,800 and raised in Britain. Although she is a Syrian. 244 00:16:15,760 --> 00:16:19,440 Descent and her family are all Syrians, but they came from a 245 00:16:19,440 --> 00:16:23,880 place where they studied and lived with progressive values. 246 00:16:24,440 --> 00:16:28,440 So he came with a confrontational, let's say, 247 00:16:28,440 --> 00:16:31,960 attitude towards the people, thinking that these people need 248 00:16:31,960 --> 00:16:35,440 to be socially reformed. So he started opening up the 249 00:16:35,440 --> 00:16:39,920 society, liberalising the economy, and this created him 250 00:16:39,920 --> 00:16:41,640 lots of. Backlash and lots of enemies in 251 00:16:41,640 --> 00:16:44,520 the country because. Many people were not ready to 252 00:16:44,520 --> 00:16:48,760 accept these progressive values, and especially among the more 253 00:16:48,760 --> 00:16:51,760 conservative people, and especially among the Muslim 254 00:16:51,760 --> 00:16:54,560 people. That's why even under Bashar's 255 00:16:54,560 --> 00:17:00,000 rule, at the beginning of the few years, the, the, the, the 256 00:17:00,000 --> 00:17:06,000 clergies, they opposed his reforms. 257 00:17:06,000 --> 00:17:09,440 For example, he opened the casino in Syria. 258 00:17:09,880 --> 00:17:12,760 It was a big issue. It was a big issue. 259 00:17:12,760 --> 00:17:17,079 It they made a big issue out of it because gambling is Haram 260 00:17:17,119 --> 00:17:19,119 under Islam. I understand it. 261 00:17:19,359 --> 00:17:20,880 I understand where they're coming from. 262 00:17:21,119 --> 00:17:27,480 But my approach is you see gambling as a Haram and I don't 263 00:17:27,480 --> 00:17:30,920 gamble. I'm not a Muslim and I could 264 00:17:30,920 --> 00:17:33,760 join you in efforts saying I don't like gambling, but there 265 00:17:33,760 --> 00:17:37,680 are people who like gambling and you should give them the right 266 00:17:37,680 --> 00:17:39,560 to gamble. And this is the same thing with 267 00:17:39,560 --> 00:17:42,560 alcohol. I don't drink alcohol, my 268 00:17:42,560 --> 00:17:45,040 friend, not out of religious reasons. 269 00:17:45,160 --> 00:17:47,240 I don't like it. I'm very sorry to hear, Kwok. 270 00:17:47,720 --> 00:17:51,880 Yeah, I don't like it. I feel it's it always makes me 271 00:17:51,880 --> 00:17:54,240 sick when I drink it and I feel it's a poison. 272 00:17:54,480 --> 00:17:58,080 That's just me. But if someone, my father drinks 273 00:17:58,080 --> 00:18:01,000 alcohol, my brother drinks alcohol, everybody around me 274 00:18:01,000 --> 00:18:03,520 drink alcohol. I'm not coming to the to the 275 00:18:03,520 --> 00:18:09,000 table and telling them my I don't preach the the how 276 00:18:09,000 --> 00:18:12,560 horrible alcohol is because most of the time people who drink 277 00:18:12,560 --> 00:18:15,320 alcohol, they're like, why are you not drinking alcohol? 278 00:18:15,800 --> 00:18:17,560 You know, are you, are you pussy? 279 00:18:17,560 --> 00:18:20,040 You know, you're sorry for, for the terminologies, you know, 280 00:18:20,480 --> 00:18:23,120 like, are you not a man? Why are you not drinking 281 00:18:23,120 --> 00:18:25,280 alcohols? Like, yeah, but it has nothing 282 00:18:25,280 --> 00:18:27,200 to do with me being a man, you know. 283 00:18:28,080 --> 00:18:31,800 Anyways, what I'm trying to say, Bashar came with confrontational 284 00:18:31,800 --> 00:18:36,080 attitude against this type of values and it didn't work out 285 00:18:36,080 --> 00:18:38,640 for him. Well, so he started making AU 286 00:18:38,720 --> 00:18:41,320 turn again. He realised that the people 287 00:18:41,320 --> 00:18:45,200 cannot be reformed this way. So he started giving them more 288 00:18:46,000 --> 00:18:49,080 mosques and more Islamic teachings. 289 00:18:49,080 --> 00:18:53,000 You what you want is like he started just appeasing them. 290 00:18:53,360 --> 00:18:58,160 And this has created more mosques in Syria than 291 00:18:58,160 --> 00:19:01,240 universities, more mosques in Syria than schools. 292 00:19:01,240 --> 00:19:04,880 And I'm not against the mosques, so nobody would misinterpreted 293 00:19:04,880 --> 00:19:07,960 that. However, I believe when you are 294 00:19:07,960 --> 00:19:11,360 a smaller country with smaller resources and when in the 295 00:19:11,360 --> 00:19:16,000 region, the countries who have hijacked the Islamic teachings 296 00:19:16,240 --> 00:19:20,600 are basically Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Qatar. 297 00:19:21,800 --> 00:19:25,000 And when the money is in the hands of Saudi Arabia, of Qatar, 298 00:19:25,000 --> 00:19:28,160 then they're the ones who are going to be able to project 299 00:19:28,160 --> 00:19:31,760 their interpretations and and their teachings on the rest of 300 00:19:31,760 --> 00:19:34,040 the region. And we have an experience, 301 00:19:34,040 --> 00:19:36,520 history behind it in Afghanistan. 302 00:19:36,920 --> 00:19:40,560 What did they do in Afghanistan? They brought all the Mujahideen 303 00:19:40,560 --> 00:19:44,160 from all around the world into Afghanistan with the money of 304 00:19:44,160 --> 00:19:46,720 Saudi Arabia. So we know that there is a 305 00:19:46,720 --> 00:19:50,440 history behind it, that Saudi Arabia can and could radicalise 306 00:19:50,440 --> 00:19:54,800 the youth in the Islamic world. And this was the, in my opinion, 307 00:19:54,800 --> 00:20:00,000 the fatal mistake. When you build, we have 13,000 308 00:20:00,000 --> 00:20:04,240 and 500 mosques in Syria for 24 million people. 309 00:20:04,640 --> 00:20:10,080 Out of which of course you have 30 to 40% were minorities. 310 00:20:10,080 --> 00:20:13,920 So you have built enormous number of mosques. 311 00:20:14,440 --> 00:20:17,720 And then the the political money comes, the Petro dollar comes 312 00:20:18,120 --> 00:20:23,080 Saudi Arabia and Qatar, they start inviting this clergyman, 313 00:20:23,080 --> 00:20:26,920 the sheikhs, this imam, giving them free trips to Saudi Arabia 314 00:20:26,920 --> 00:20:30,320 to go to Hajj and bring with them 50 people. 315 00:20:31,040 --> 00:20:33,120 What do you think is going to happen through time? 316 00:20:33,120 --> 00:20:35,440 They're going to buy influence in the country. 317 00:20:35,760 --> 00:20:41,240 And this imam is going to go to the podium and talk to 203 318 00:20:41,240 --> 00:20:45,320 hundred people and likewise 13,000 and 500 mosques. 319 00:20:45,960 --> 00:20:47,760 And this is what happened in 2011. 320 00:20:48,000 --> 00:20:51,240 This is what where I'm leading with this conversation. 321 00:20:51,560 --> 00:21:01,320 The vast majority of the experts on Syria do not tell us that 99% 322 00:21:01,360 --> 00:21:06,840 of the anti Assad demonstrations and protests erupted from the 323 00:21:06,840 --> 00:21:11,560 mosques every Friday after the prayer they used to go from the 324 00:21:11,560 --> 00:21:15,400 mosques. So who is funding the mosque and 325 00:21:15,400 --> 00:21:19,760 who is urging this imam to call for the people to to demonstrate 326 00:21:19,760 --> 00:21:23,760 and protest against the the political authoritarianism? 327 00:21:24,040 --> 00:21:27,800 And if this comes from the mosque, where will this lead 328 00:21:28,400 --> 00:21:31,480 when the regime change happened? Those are legitimate questions. 329 00:21:32,040 --> 00:21:37,640 And I said, if the revolution starts from the mosque, then the 330 00:21:37,640 --> 00:21:41,000 outcome will be that this is going to be an Islamic rule. 331 00:21:41,560 --> 00:21:43,000 Where is the controversy in that? 332 00:21:43,000 --> 00:21:45,280 And that was called an Assadist talking point. 333 00:21:45,600 --> 00:21:50,600 So Fast forward in 2025, my friend, who turned out to be 334 00:21:50,600 --> 00:21:53,800 correct because it's very, it's logical. 335 00:21:53,800 --> 00:21:57,360 It's not like somebody needs to be really an expert or a genius 336 00:21:57,360 --> 00:22:03,080 to understand that when you have 60,000 people, this is the the 337 00:22:03,080 --> 00:22:07,040 most, the biggest number of people who demonstrated at one 338 00:22:07,040 --> 00:22:10,560 time against Assad were 60,000 people. 339 00:22:11,320 --> 00:22:14,960 And this happened in Hama. And why it is in Hama? 340 00:22:15,520 --> 00:22:20,320 Because in 82 the Muslim Brotherhood uprising started 341 00:22:20,320 --> 00:22:25,560 from Hama and this was the place where they started an Islamic 342 00:22:26,080 --> 00:22:31,640 Emirate in Hama and this is where Hafez al Assad crashed 343 00:22:31,640 --> 00:22:35,880 this Islamist uprising and insurgency in 82. 344 00:22:36,240 --> 00:22:39,360 So if you don't know the history, you will not know why 345 00:22:39,360 --> 00:22:43,160 most people demonstrated in the city of Hama also against 346 00:22:43,160 --> 00:22:47,560 Bashar. Anyways, because of this let's 347 00:22:47,560 --> 00:22:52,320 say context and background, it was easy to see that if they 348 00:22:52,320 --> 00:22:56,800 remove Assad from power this is not going to lead into a western 349 00:22:56,800 --> 00:23:01,080 style democracy or a Switzerland or not even a Singapore because 350 00:23:01,080 --> 00:23:04,280 this is what the anti Assad people all the time say. 351 00:23:04,280 --> 00:23:08,920 Once we remove Assad from power we will make a Singapore of the 352 00:23:08,920 --> 00:23:12,160 Middle East out of Syria. And this is ridiculous because 353 00:23:12,880 --> 00:23:16,680 if you need to create a Singapore, you need the 354 00:23:16,680 --> 00:23:19,120 mentality of the people who built Singapore. 355 00:23:19,480 --> 00:23:22,680 But when you see who are the people governing Syria nowadays, 356 00:23:22,680 --> 00:23:28,400 like Jolani and Shibani and the Ministry of Interior and the 357 00:23:28,400 --> 00:23:31,480 intelligence apparatuses and the multinational terrorists in 358 00:23:31,480 --> 00:23:37,280 Syria, the maximum they could establish is Afghanistan. 2 359 00:23:37,280 --> 00:23:40,800 point O. And I'm not trying to insult the 360 00:23:40,800 --> 00:23:44,280 people in Afghanistan. I'm, I'm, I'm saying the, the, 361 00:23:44,480 --> 00:23:47,560 the, the ruling party there, who are they? 362 00:23:47,560 --> 00:23:51,160 It's the Taliban, right? And these people in Syria who 363 00:23:51,160 --> 00:23:55,000 are governing now are worse than Taliban. 364 00:23:55,680 --> 00:24:01,600 They are the Al Qaeda offshoot. They are the partners of Abu 365 00:24:01,600 --> 00:24:04,240 Baker Baghdadi. They are the people who were in 366 00:24:04,240 --> 00:24:08,640 Iraq and sending car bombs into a Christian and Shia 367 00:24:08,640 --> 00:24:10,480 neighbourhoods. They are the ones who 368 00:24:10,480 --> 00:24:12,800 decapitated countless number of people. 369 00:24:13,120 --> 00:24:16,680 They are the ones who executed women in the streets, accusing 370 00:24:16,680 --> 00:24:19,720 them of adultery, all documented on videos. 371 00:24:20,240 --> 00:24:25,720 The defence minister of Syria, he has an old video film 2014, 372 00:24:26,000 --> 00:24:29,640 breaking the statue of Virgin Mary on on the floor. 373 00:24:29,840 --> 00:24:32,520 Those are the people who are in charge of the country. 374 00:24:32,520 --> 00:24:35,480 So what do you expect really from this type of mentality? 375 00:24:36,840 --> 00:24:40,680 Then somebody like Charles Lister, who is considered an 376 00:24:40,680 --> 00:24:45,280 expert on Syria for working for a think tank funded by the Gulf 377 00:24:45,280 --> 00:24:49,040 countries, he comes and tells you that don't listen to Kivuk, 378 00:24:49,040 --> 00:24:52,560 this is paid by Assad. This is a projection because 379 00:24:52,560 --> 00:24:57,520 they are paid by people with invested interest to distort 380 00:24:57,520 --> 00:25:00,560 these realities and present what is happening in Syria as a 381 00:25:00,560 --> 00:25:03,280 progress. This is the worst chapter in the 382 00:25:03,280 --> 00:25:06,680 history of Syria. This is the darkest and the 383 00:25:06,680 --> 00:25:08,880 bleakest chapter in the history of Syria. 384 00:25:09,160 --> 00:25:12,480 And the Syrian people are paying a very, very high price for this 385 00:25:12,480 --> 00:25:14,320 choice. Maybe they didn't choose it. 386 00:25:14,360 --> 00:25:17,000 I don't know. But now, after that Jolani came, 387 00:25:17,000 --> 00:25:21,800 many people like, act like it's the acceptable thing to accept 388 00:25:21,800 --> 00:25:23,160 Jolani. No, it's not. 389 00:25:23,400 --> 00:25:26,840 It's not. Imagine your president is the 390 00:25:26,840 --> 00:25:29,920 founder of the al Qaeda offshoot in Syria. 391 00:25:29,920 --> 00:25:32,040 Do you understand the gravity of the issue? 392 00:25:32,760 --> 00:25:38,000 Do you understand I'm talking to the Syrian people what type of 393 00:25:38,000 --> 00:25:42,520 image you are giving about your country to the outside world by 394 00:25:42,520 --> 00:25:48,800 having a president like him? Because there wasn't consistent 395 00:25:48,800 --> 00:25:53,000 effort since 9:11 to say all Muslims are terrorists, right? 396 00:25:53,040 --> 00:25:57,160 You remember the era of after 911 and equate them all to Osama 397 00:25:57,160 --> 00:26:00,960 bin Laden. And if you accept someone like 398 00:26:00,960 --> 00:26:04,800 Jolani as a president, you are proving the point. 399 00:26:04,800 --> 00:26:09,000 You have fallen into the trap. They have said for you by now 400 00:26:09,000 --> 00:26:12,520 they will come and say every time we gave them the 401 00:26:12,520 --> 00:26:15,320 opportunity to govern themselves, we freed them from 402 00:26:15,320 --> 00:26:18,360 the from the tyranny. And they have picked and chose 403 00:26:18,720 --> 00:26:22,080 the al Qaeda leader, although they didn't choose him. 404 00:26:22,240 --> 00:26:26,200 They were the CIA and the MI 6 and the MIT behind Jolani. 405 00:26:26,960 --> 00:26:30,040 They brought him to power, but the people celebrated him. 406 00:26:31,000 --> 00:26:34,720 That's the problem. So it's also, this is not only 407 00:26:34,720 --> 00:26:38,040 politics, you know, you have public opinion in the West, in 408 00:26:38,040 --> 00:26:40,840 the east, in the South, in the north, watching what is 409 00:26:40,840 --> 00:26:45,000 happening there. And they were like, oh, Syrian 410 00:26:45,000 --> 00:26:51,440 people want Jolani, OK, which means they're also like Jolani, 411 00:26:51,440 --> 00:26:53,720 right? If you want Jolani, you're like 412 00:26:53,720 --> 00:26:57,320 Jolani. But Jolani comes and says, I 413 00:26:57,320 --> 00:27:01,200 have, I have informed like, like the last person which I 414 00:27:01,200 --> 00:27:04,920 decapitated 1010 days ago. I, that was a phase. 415 00:27:05,960 --> 00:27:08,680 I reformed. I'm a diversity friendly, accept 416 00:27:08,680 --> 00:27:11,720 me the way I am. And now I'm going to govern the 417 00:27:11,720 --> 00:27:14,840 country with 22 different components and I'm going to be 418 00:27:14,840 --> 00:27:18,120 fair with them. I'm going to treat them well. 419 00:27:18,600 --> 00:27:21,520 Nice words, right? Those are about all rhetoric. 420 00:27:21,520 --> 00:27:25,760 It's talk. The moment he came to power, he 421 00:27:25,760 --> 00:27:29,080 killed 1500 civilians in three days. 422 00:27:30,680 --> 00:27:34,320 In three days, all were Alawites. 423 00:27:34,800 --> 00:27:40,360 He massacred them based on their sectarian affiliation because 424 00:27:40,840 --> 00:27:46,520 they associated them with Assad. Assad was an Alawite, so they 425 00:27:46,520 --> 00:27:50,560 killed them and they they came after the Druze in the South, 426 00:27:51,320 --> 00:27:56,160 and the Druze had the the United States and Israel on their back, 427 00:27:56,720 --> 00:27:59,440 so they shielded themselves. The same goes with the Kurds. 428 00:28:00,160 --> 00:28:03,480 They shielded themselves with the Americans, but who is in the 429 00:28:03,480 --> 00:28:05,200 back of the Christians and the Alawites? 430 00:28:05,760 --> 00:28:11,160 No one. If Jolani kills every single 431 00:28:11,160 --> 00:28:14,720 Christian and Alawite in Syria now, nobody will blink an eye. 432 00:28:15,200 --> 00:28:18,040 They don't give a fuck about them. 433 00:28:18,520 --> 00:28:24,880 A big portion of the post independence Syria seems to 434 00:28:25,320 --> 00:28:28,000 relate to to Islam a lot. So. 435 00:28:28,240 --> 00:28:31,080 At the current moment, the Christians of Syria, the 436 00:28:31,120 --> 00:28:35,080 percentage of the Christians of Syria dropped 90%, which means 437 00:28:35,560 --> 00:28:39,480 we have moved from around 2,000,000 Christianity in Syria 438 00:28:40,080 --> 00:28:42,800 into 200,000 Christians in Syria. 439 00:28:43,160 --> 00:28:45,400 This is a very small number anyways. 440 00:28:45,400 --> 00:28:49,840 So they don't present any obstacle to the rule, to the 441 00:28:49,840 --> 00:28:53,160 government, to the regime or to the Islamists. 442 00:28:53,360 --> 00:28:57,520 Now, in my experience in Syria, I have lived there most of my 443 00:28:57,520 --> 00:29:01,280 life. I have never encountered in my 444 00:29:01,280 --> 00:29:07,840 life racism or prejudice or any type of negative behaviour 445 00:29:08,240 --> 00:29:13,400 because I was a Christian from anyone Muslim, Christian drusa. 446 00:29:13,920 --> 00:29:17,440 It was a situation where people don't care what what religion 447 00:29:17,440 --> 00:29:22,720 you are because they said El Din Muhammadi in Arabic, which means 448 00:29:24,280 --> 00:29:28,240 religion is how how you treat me. 449 00:29:29,000 --> 00:29:31,000 So the the way you treat me, I treat you. 450 00:29:31,640 --> 00:29:34,080 I don't care if you believe in Muhammad, if you believe in 451 00:29:34,080 --> 00:29:37,120 Jesus, if you believe to Isa, it doesn't matter. 452 00:29:38,120 --> 00:29:39,920 As long as you treat me well, I treat you well. 453 00:29:40,840 --> 00:29:44,400 And the Christians in Syria and especially the Armenians of 454 00:29:44,400 --> 00:29:47,680 Syria, they had a brilliant reputation among the Muslim 455 00:29:47,680 --> 00:29:53,760 people to the extent that my father used to be in an 456 00:29:53,760 --> 00:29:59,320 industrial zone and we were like a second class business doing 457 00:29:59,320 --> 00:30:01,240 businesses. It's not like we were not in the 458 00:30:01,240 --> 00:30:05,720 upper of the tier. We couldn't import from, let's 459 00:30:05,720 --> 00:30:08,760 say from Germany, but we used to buy from the market and resell 460 00:30:08,760 --> 00:30:11,960 it in the market. And we used to work in a German 461 00:30:13,040 --> 00:30:16,120 business. And what happened is basically 462 00:30:16,480 --> 00:30:21,160 people come to our shop and say to my tell my father that we 463 00:30:21,160 --> 00:30:24,440 want to buy from you because you're Armenian, because you're 464 00:30:24,440 --> 00:30:28,680 Christian, because we know you don't lie and you don't cheat 465 00:30:29,200 --> 00:30:31,400 and we trust you. And when you say this is 466 00:30:31,400 --> 00:30:33,720 Chinese, this is Chinese, this is German, this is German. 467 00:30:34,400 --> 00:30:38,120 So Muslims used to come and buy from us all the time. 468 00:30:38,720 --> 00:30:45,240 And we made our money, we made our fortune thanks to them. 469 00:30:45,720 --> 00:30:48,800 We had no problem with them. And on Fridays they used to go 470 00:30:48,800 --> 00:30:53,440 to their prayer, they pray for 1/1 and 1/2 hour, etcetera. 471 00:30:53,600 --> 00:30:55,520 All the countries stops from operating. 472 00:30:55,680 --> 00:30:58,880 It's OK, it's 1 1/2 hour per week, no problem. 473 00:30:59,720 --> 00:31:05,280 But the moment when you start forcing it on the people, so 474 00:31:05,280 --> 00:31:07,720 it's Friday, they're going to pray. 475 00:31:07,720 --> 00:31:11,280 So we used to close our shop and sit inside until they finish 476 00:31:11,280 --> 00:31:15,600 their prayer out of respect. But then when the war erupted, 477 00:31:15,600 --> 00:31:19,200 the Islamists came. They will force you to close 478 00:31:19,200 --> 00:31:21,520 your shop, so they would come to your shop. 479 00:31:21,520 --> 00:31:24,200 If you don't close your shop, we will kill you or we will lynch 480 00:31:24,200 --> 00:31:26,720 you in the streets. That's the difference between 481 00:31:26,880 --> 00:31:29,840 what Muslim and what an Islamist is. 482 00:31:30,720 --> 00:31:34,800 So nowadays, unfortunately speaking, the people governing 483 00:31:34,800 --> 00:31:39,120 the country are these radical Islamists and the Christians 484 00:31:39,120 --> 00:31:45,760 have lost just completely in this government and they know 485 00:31:46,280 --> 00:31:49,880 that this government doesn't sees them as equals in the 486 00:31:49,880 --> 00:31:53,680 country. And the evidence for it is, is 487 00:31:53,680 --> 00:31:57,960 this latest terrorist attack in the church in San Elias Church 488 00:31:57,960 --> 00:32:00,440 in Damascus, which killed over 30 civilians. 489 00:32:01,640 --> 00:32:07,000 I will give you, I will tell you why two people between two to 490 00:32:07,000 --> 00:32:09,000 three people conducted this terrorist attack. 491 00:32:09,560 --> 00:32:13,000 And one of them, the people outside the church, they have 492 00:32:13,000 --> 00:32:19,840 seen him crossing a checkpoint of the Jolani regime and they 493 00:32:19,840 --> 00:32:24,480 have seen this person before in their neighbourhood. 2 weeks 494 00:32:24,480 --> 00:32:30,720 ago, he came with loud speakers on a back of a pickup track 495 00:32:31,080 --> 00:32:35,760 calling the Christians to convert to Islam and the people 496 00:32:35,800 --> 00:32:40,480 of the district kicked him out of the neighbourhood. 2 weeks 497 00:32:40,480 --> 00:32:43,360 later they saw him coming and passing through the checkpoint 498 00:32:44,400 --> 00:32:48,640 and walking to the church and people tried to stop him and he 499 00:32:48,640 --> 00:32:52,120 had the suicide vest and he went into the church and he blew 500 00:32:52,120 --> 00:32:55,760 himself up after he opened fire on on on the people. 501 00:32:56,440 --> 00:33:01,560 Now this person who two weeks ago came and called the people 502 00:33:01,560 --> 00:33:05,360 to convert to Islam, people noticed his face. 503 00:33:05,360 --> 00:33:08,000 They started asking questions with this person, what is he 504 00:33:08,000 --> 00:33:11,240 doing in our neighbourhood? And they brought his full name, 505 00:33:12,400 --> 00:33:17,600 and they found out that he is an official security personnel in 506 00:33:17,600 --> 00:33:21,520 the Jolani regime, which means he's a registered security agent 507 00:33:22,040 --> 00:33:26,640 in the Jolani regime. And this person came back to the 508 00:33:26,640 --> 00:33:30,440 church and blew himself up among people, killing them. 509 00:33:31,160 --> 00:33:37,280 And 15 minutes later, the Jolani regime issued a statement 510 00:33:37,600 --> 00:33:41,960 blaming ISIS for the attack. But this was not carried out by 511 00:33:41,960 --> 00:33:45,000 ISIS. This was carried out by a man 512 00:33:45,320 --> 00:33:48,640 and his colleague. Both of them were part of the 513 00:33:48,640 --> 00:33:52,120 Jolani regime. But because they cannot say 514 00:33:52,120 --> 00:33:54,240 that, so they blamed ISIS for it. 515 00:33:54,600 --> 00:33:58,560 Quickly. This is a huge sin that they 516 00:33:58,560 --> 00:34:01,840 have done against the Christians because now the Christians 517 00:34:01,840 --> 00:34:04,680 cannot trust the judgement of the government if you are not 518 00:34:04,680 --> 00:34:08,320 going to hold yourself accountable for what your guy 519 00:34:08,360 --> 00:34:12,679 did to us. Secondly, after the bombing, 520 00:34:13,840 --> 00:34:18,840 only one Syrian official in the Jolani regime visited the church 521 00:34:19,040 --> 00:34:24,080 to deliver the condolences and this person is Christian herself 522 00:34:24,920 --> 00:34:30,320 because there is one Christian woman in the Jolani cabinet that 523 00:34:30,320 --> 00:34:33,320 her handlers told her she used to live in Canada. 524 00:34:33,719 --> 00:34:37,199 You need to come to Damascus. She used to work with them, with 525 00:34:37,199 --> 00:34:41,679 the regime change operatives, let's say for a long time, 526 00:34:41,920 --> 00:34:45,520 because we need a woman, we need a woman who who is not covered 527 00:34:45,800 --> 00:34:49,840 not there is no hijab and we need a Christian woman in the 528 00:34:49,840 --> 00:34:51,960 government. So we give the impression, the 529 00:34:51,960 --> 00:34:55,360 false impression that this is a multiculti and diversity 530 00:34:55,360 --> 00:34:57,520 friendly regime. Theatre, theatre. 531 00:34:58,600 --> 00:35:02,480 She went to the church to deliver her condolences. 532 00:35:03,000 --> 00:35:07,200 Right? Jolani called on the phone. 533 00:35:07,840 --> 00:35:13,200 The patriarch and said he's sorry to what happened to to the 534 00:35:13,200 --> 00:35:17,160 church and to the people. And then he issued a written 535 00:35:17,160 --> 00:35:20,720 statement. In the statement, he says he's 536 00:35:20,720 --> 00:35:25,920 expressing solidarity and sympathy with the victims of the 537 00:35:25,920 --> 00:35:31,080 criminal explosion. Now when we said you need to be 538 00:35:31,080 --> 00:35:35,120 Syrian to understand the, the mentality and the meanings 539 00:35:35,120 --> 00:35:38,320 behind the words that these, all these pandas do not know. 540 00:35:38,920 --> 00:35:43,520 If you're a president of a country and you call the this 541 00:35:44,080 --> 00:35:50,120 terrorist attack a criminal explosion, you don't call it a 542 00:35:50,120 --> 00:35:54,760 terrorist attack and you don't call the victims martyrs in our 543 00:35:54,760 --> 00:36:01,320 language, then you are putting them below the martyrs status. 544 00:36:01,400 --> 00:36:06,880 And in Syria when somebody is praying to God in a church and 545 00:36:06,880 --> 00:36:10,440 gets killed, he's a martyr. Same thing happens to people who 546 00:36:10,920 --> 00:36:13,440 worshipping in the mosque and somebody kills them, he's a 547 00:36:13,440 --> 00:36:16,520 martyr. But Jolani not calling them a 548 00:36:16,520 --> 00:36:21,040 martyr means he doesn't he, he considers them below the Muslims 549 00:36:21,400 --> 00:36:24,360 who could be martyrs but the Christians not. 550 00:36:24,840 --> 00:36:28,520 And the second thing is, how would Jolani even call them 551 00:36:28,520 --> 00:36:35,200 martyrs if he himself sent car bombs to the Christian and Xi'an 552 00:36:35,200 --> 00:36:37,800 neighbourhoods and killed many people in the past? 553 00:36:38,160 --> 00:36:39,520 This means he's also a terrorist. 554 00:36:39,520 --> 00:36:40,960 He's calling himself a terrorist. 555 00:36:41,280 --> 00:36:45,960 And that's why the patriarch Yaji, when he gave the speech, 556 00:36:46,560 --> 00:36:48,280 and I could send you the speech now. 557 00:36:48,440 --> 00:36:51,800 So you could probably, if you want to show it later to your 558 00:36:51,800 --> 00:36:55,520 audience. He dared to criticise Jolani and 559 00:36:55,520 --> 00:36:58,640 he said you called us on a phone. 560 00:36:58,800 --> 00:37:02,560 That's not enough. You didn't even declare 3 day 561 00:37:02,600 --> 00:37:06,080 days of mourning for our martyrs. 562 00:37:06,080 --> 00:37:10,360 You didn't call them martyrs. So he said if there is anyone 563 00:37:10,360 --> 00:37:14,720 who should declare 3 days of mourning, you should declare A 564 00:37:14,720 --> 00:37:17,480 mourning over the government, which means the government is 565 00:37:17,480 --> 00:37:20,520 dead. And he challenged him in the 566 00:37:20,520 --> 00:37:25,000 church and this LED into a huge backlash against him. 567 00:37:25,720 --> 00:37:29,120 And all the minions and mouthpieces of Jolani waged a 568 00:37:29,120 --> 00:37:32,840 brutal campaign against him, against Patriarch Yaji. 569 00:37:33,320 --> 00:37:37,760 And I fear and I believe that they will kill him eventually. 570 00:37:38,120 --> 00:37:41,280 They will kill him, but they will not kill him themselves. 571 00:37:41,840 --> 00:37:43,400 Just like they did with the church. 572 00:37:43,760 --> 00:37:47,000 They will send a lone wolf. It's not going to be someone 573 00:37:47,120 --> 00:37:51,360 this time from the government and they will say this criminal 574 00:37:51,360 --> 00:37:54,040 person killed the Patriot. They will capture him and they 575 00:37:54,040 --> 00:37:56,520 will make a theatre. They will make a video of him 576 00:37:56,800 --> 00:38:00,480 being captured. We brought justice. 577 00:38:00,480 --> 00:38:04,680 But the real issue is they will eliminate him because they will 578 00:38:04,680 --> 00:38:06,880 bring someone else in his position. 579 00:38:07,840 --> 00:38:11,720 And I hear those are my sources. I could be wrong, that they're 580 00:38:11,720 --> 00:38:14,440 preparing someone in the United States who is a Christian 581 00:38:14,440 --> 00:38:18,240 Zionist to bring him to Damascus to replace him. 582 00:38:18,680 --> 00:38:22,240 So this could be a record for the people to to see if this 583 00:38:22,240 --> 00:38:25,240 happens in the future. OK Kevork, I just want to make 584 00:38:25,240 --> 00:38:26,800 sure I'm following. OK. 585 00:38:26,800 --> 00:38:34,280 So 1946 more or less would be the the start of independence. 586 00:38:34,760 --> 00:38:38,160 It was the end of the French mandate and the defeat of the 587 00:38:38,160 --> 00:38:41,360 Ottomans. And around 1970, Assad senior 588 00:38:42,680 --> 00:38:44,280 took control. He became the president and 589 00:38:44,280 --> 00:38:49,600 around 2000, Assad junior became president during the Assad 590 00:38:50,840 --> 00:38:52,760 presidency. Because the West likes to say 591 00:38:52,760 --> 00:38:54,760 regime. We always say regime when it 592 00:38:54,760 --> 00:38:59,880 when it's a government they don't like the the mainstream 593 00:38:59,880 --> 00:39:03,960 narrative is that Syria was very unstable and it was oppressive 594 00:39:03,960 --> 00:39:06,680 and it was authoritarian and it was a horrible place to live. 595 00:39:06,680 --> 00:39:10,080 You're saying the opposite, that it was stable and it was a good 596 00:39:10,080 --> 00:39:16,000 safe place to live. With that in mind, the rise of 597 00:39:16,800 --> 00:39:19,200 is Islamism is that, is that a word? 598 00:39:19,200 --> 00:39:21,520 Islamism? I don't know if it's a word, but 599 00:39:21,520 --> 00:39:27,400 let's use it. Is that related then to US 600 00:39:27,720 --> 00:39:31,720 foreign interests and of course by extension Israeli foreign 601 00:39:31,720 --> 00:39:35,360 interests to to destabilise the region? 602 00:39:36,720 --> 00:39:40,240 So people may say Kevork is biassed. 603 00:39:41,040 --> 00:39:43,560 He's not objective. Google him. 604 00:39:43,600 --> 00:39:47,560 He, he's, Wikipedia says he's an Assadist, right? 605 00:39:48,080 --> 00:39:54,560 OK, let's ask 7 million tourists who visited Syria in 2010 if 606 00:39:54,560 --> 00:39:59,200 Syria was unstable and Syria was a chaotic place where people are 607 00:39:59,200 --> 00:40:03,000 being beaten up in the streets, being sent to dungeons for 608 00:40:03,000 --> 00:40:06,960 having an opinion. Or how can, how can 7 million 609 00:40:06,960 --> 00:40:13,080 people risk themselves and come to Syria as visitors from all 610 00:40:13,080 --> 00:40:16,120 around the world? This is 2010 Syria. 611 00:40:16,840 --> 00:40:21,840 According to the Western pollings, was one of the safest 612 00:40:21,840 --> 00:40:26,080 places in the world. It was the safest place in the 613 00:40:26,080 --> 00:40:28,720 Middle East for people to come and visit. 614 00:40:29,000 --> 00:40:33,320 And it was the richest place for culturally, historically, for 615 00:40:33,320 --> 00:40:35,000 the people to come and visit the country. 616 00:40:35,400 --> 00:40:37,720 I, I, I studied in Paris in 2010. 617 00:40:37,720 --> 00:40:41,120 And with me, I brought a friend from France to visit Syria. 618 00:40:41,680 --> 00:40:45,360 And she said, I believe you. I have never been to Syria. 619 00:40:46,120 --> 00:40:48,680 In the press they would say don't go, but I will go with 620 00:40:48,680 --> 00:40:50,280 you. And she came to Syria and 621 00:40:50,280 --> 00:40:53,000 visited it for 15 days. And she was fascinated. 622 00:40:53,600 --> 00:40:59,520 Now the rise of the Islamists, Islamism, right? 623 00:41:00,080 --> 00:41:04,800 This is something that goes back to the to the Brits, not to the 624 00:41:04,800 --> 00:41:07,920 Americans. The Brits, they're the ones who 625 00:41:07,920 --> 00:41:11,640 created this Muslim Brotherhood movement in the region or helped 626 00:41:12,040 --> 00:41:13,840 in the creation of the Muslim. Brotherhood. 627 00:41:14,200 --> 00:41:20,160 Because in the 1920s, in the mid 1920s, when the Brits used to be 628 00:41:20,160 --> 00:41:26,240 in the occupation in in Egypt, the people who fought against 629 00:41:26,240 --> 00:41:29,560 the British occupation were the nationalists and the socialists. 630 00:41:30,680 --> 00:41:36,280 So how do you find an A domestic rift and domestic enemy to the 631 00:41:36,280 --> 00:41:41,640 nationalists and socialists? Who is the natural enemy of 632 00:41:42,520 --> 00:41:44,600 nationalism and socialism in the region? 633 00:41:44,600 --> 00:41:48,240 They are the Islamists. So they have they have helped 634 00:41:48,600 --> 00:41:54,840 the creation of the Muslim bordered in Egypt by I will 635 00:41:54,840 --> 00:41:59,200 remember his name now. And they have started this 636 00:41:59,200 --> 00:42:04,560 movement from Egypt to divide and conquer the region. 637 00:42:04,960 --> 00:42:08,040 Now the Americans are the successor of the British Empire, 638 00:42:08,040 --> 00:42:09,960 and they have learned a lot from them. 639 00:42:10,400 --> 00:42:12,880 And they have. They have just taken the script 640 00:42:13,040 --> 00:42:17,560 and they applied it in different places, one of which is in 641 00:42:17,560 --> 00:42:22,200 Afghanistan. And Afghanistan was the test for 642 00:42:22,200 --> 00:42:26,840 this formula, and it worked. Hillary Clinton says this was an 643 00:42:26,840 --> 00:42:30,000 amazing plan. We defeated the Soviet Union. 644 00:42:30,480 --> 00:42:34,480 We sent thousands of banless jihadists from all around the 645 00:42:34,480 --> 00:42:37,240 world, trained them, gave them the money. 646 00:42:37,280 --> 00:42:41,320 We have a good ally like Saudi Arabia financing all this and 647 00:42:41,320 --> 00:42:46,160 then we tasked Saudi Arabia to build what is called madrassas. 648 00:42:46,160 --> 00:42:47,960 Madrassa in Arabic means schools. 649 00:42:48,120 --> 00:42:52,000 School and madrassas are the plural of schools. 650 00:42:52,600 --> 00:42:56,360 And Saudi Arabia built religious schools in Pakistan, 651 00:42:56,360 --> 00:43:00,280 Afghanistan, Central Asia, Middle East, thousands of them. 652 00:43:01,040 --> 00:43:03,960 What is the purpose of this? Religious schools is to 653 00:43:03,960 --> 00:43:05,920 indoctrinate and radicalise the youth. 654 00:43:06,400 --> 00:43:10,920 So this was not something like a misjudgement. 655 00:43:10,960 --> 00:43:15,040 This was a deliberate policy to radicalise this the Muslim youth 656 00:43:15,520 --> 00:43:19,560 through indoctrination, through petrodollar, which Saudi Arabia 657 00:43:19,560 --> 00:43:22,360 played a major role after the Arab Spring. 658 00:43:22,360 --> 00:43:26,200 It was Qatar who played the major role in the radicalization 659 00:43:26,200 --> 00:43:28,840 of the people. So this is not something like 660 00:43:29,400 --> 00:43:33,320 the Americans made a mistake in Afghanistan. 661 00:43:33,320 --> 00:43:37,320 This was a deliberate policy, because if this was a mistake 662 00:43:38,480 --> 00:43:41,520 and you consider it a mistake, you will not copy this script 663 00:43:41,520 --> 00:43:46,480 again in Syria or in Afghanistan or in Chechnya or in Bosnia and 664 00:43:46,480 --> 00:43:47,960 in different places around the world. 665 00:43:48,240 --> 00:43:52,000 This is a useful strategy against the enemies of the 666 00:43:52,000 --> 00:43:56,560 United States, turning this brainless, radicalised, young, 667 00:43:57,080 --> 00:44:03,680 aggressive, angry at life people into ticking bombs against the 668 00:44:03,680 --> 00:44:07,680 enemies of the United States. And this has been the case also 669 00:44:07,680 --> 00:44:10,640 in Syria. We had 10s of thousands of 670 00:44:10,640 --> 00:44:15,120 multinational terrorists coming to Syria to fight against who 671 00:44:15,200 --> 00:44:18,240 they say the infidel Assad regime. 672 00:44:18,840 --> 00:44:22,600 OK, what about Palestine, my friend? 673 00:44:23,720 --> 00:44:28,080 Why don't they go also to Palestine if that is the case? 674 00:44:28,680 --> 00:44:34,240 If Jerusalem is the fourth most important holy site in Islam, 675 00:44:35,160 --> 00:44:37,000 why don't they go and liberate Jerusalem? 676 00:44:37,360 --> 00:44:40,800 Why is it that Al Qaeda has never attacked Israel? 677 00:44:40,800 --> 00:44:42,760 Why is it that ISIS never attacked Israel? 678 00:44:42,760 --> 00:44:46,480 Why is it most of the victims are the people of the Levant and 679 00:44:46,480 --> 00:44:50,560 not the Americans or the Israelis per SE? 680 00:44:51,000 --> 00:44:55,000 And I'm not calling for attacks against them because if at any 681 00:44:55,360 --> 00:45:00,360 historical juncture I find myself between only two powers, 682 00:45:00,800 --> 00:45:04,000 ISIS and America, I will definitely find myself on the 683 00:45:04,000 --> 00:45:06,480 side of America. I'm not going to be with with 684 00:45:06,480 --> 00:45:09,200 ISIS. But what I'm saying is they are 685 00:45:09,200 --> 00:45:12,760 moving ISIS on the chess board. And I, this reminds me of what 686 00:45:12,760 --> 00:45:18,600 Professor Mikhail Hudson said in this case, he said Al Qaeda is 687 00:45:18,600 --> 00:45:21,480 basically a contract army for the United States. 688 00:45:21,480 --> 00:45:26,000 They founded it in Afghanistan and they moved it in into 689 00:45:26,000 --> 00:45:28,840 different places to break status quo. 690 00:45:29,120 --> 00:45:31,240 When there is a status quo that you don't like, you have to 691 00:45:31,240 --> 00:45:33,160 break it. You need these chaotic and 692 00:45:33,160 --> 00:45:36,080 terroristic elements to break the status quo so you can reform 693 00:45:36,080 --> 00:45:39,520 a new reality or a new status quo which is more in favourable 694 00:45:39,520 --> 00:45:42,280 to you. And this is the problem. 695 00:45:42,280 --> 00:45:46,600 This is a huge problem. This problem is not like people 696 00:45:46,600 --> 00:45:50,080 believe in Islam. The the problem is the Islamism 697 00:45:50,080 --> 00:45:54,400 that you said, which is imposing your way of life and your 698 00:45:54,400 --> 00:45:58,160 understanding of what Islam is on the rest of the people. 699 00:45:58,440 --> 00:46:01,200 And this is where you will find me pushing against it. 700 00:46:01,520 --> 00:46:05,840 And that's why they say I'm an, I'm an Islamophobe, I'm a 701 00:46:05,840 --> 00:46:08,800 fascist. It's like, am I saying anything 702 00:46:08,800 --> 00:46:12,320 wrong in this? If if Christians come, if the 703 00:46:12,320 --> 00:46:17,560 Roman Empire comes to Syria and tells to the 70% of the people, 704 00:46:18,040 --> 00:46:23,440 I will wipe, I will I will basically send you into 705 00:46:23,440 --> 00:46:26,560 concentration camp, put you inside cages. 706 00:46:26,560 --> 00:46:28,720 I will burn you woman. I will rape you woman. 707 00:46:28,720 --> 00:46:31,360 I will take them as sex slaves. If you don't convert to 708 00:46:31,360 --> 00:46:34,960 Christianity. Do you think we're going to do 709 00:46:34,960 --> 00:46:38,840 this podcast and say that's amazing or we're going to push 710 00:46:38,840 --> 00:46:42,520 against it? So today, when we speak today, 711 00:46:42,520 --> 00:46:50,040 my friend, even the mainstream press say that 10's and 10s of 712 00:46:50,120 --> 00:46:54,880 Alawite women are kidnapped by the Jolani thugs. 713 00:46:55,240 --> 00:47:00,240 They are daily kidnappings of women in Syria for sex, slave 714 00:47:00,240 --> 00:47:05,240 for slavery. This is worse than a jungle, 715 00:47:05,240 --> 00:47:07,240 right? Like do you do? 716 00:47:07,280 --> 00:47:09,840 Do do people understand the gravity of the issue? 717 00:47:09,840 --> 00:47:16,160 Like a woman takes a taxi or a van and going to her school and 718 00:47:16,160 --> 00:47:19,560 then take the woman and they call her parents and they mock 719 00:47:19,560 --> 00:47:23,480 her, mock the her parents saying your woman is with us and you 720 00:47:23,480 --> 00:47:27,920 will never see her again. And they rape her over and over 721 00:47:27,920 --> 00:47:32,080 again. This jihadist come seven people, 722 00:47:32,080 --> 00:47:35,600 eight people, nine people. This is the situation now in the 723 00:47:35,600 --> 00:47:38,840 country. Is this really the freedom we 724 00:47:38,840 --> 00:47:40,280 were promised? It is not. 725 00:47:40,280 --> 00:47:45,640 And, and under both Assads was Syria the secular country. 726 00:47:46,720 --> 00:47:51,360 So the definition of secularism in Europe and in the West is 727 00:47:51,360 --> 00:47:54,400 different from what secularism means in Syria. 728 00:47:55,360 --> 00:47:59,160 And nowadays secularism in the West is also, some people would 729 00:47:59,160 --> 00:48:01,600 say, an indication that it is anti religion. 730 00:48:01,840 --> 00:48:04,840 Like they're trying to destroy the church and they're trying to 731 00:48:04,840 --> 00:48:06,720 destroy the church. They're trying to destroy 732 00:48:06,720 --> 00:48:09,320 Christianity in the West. I can see it with my objective 733 00:48:09,320 --> 00:48:12,400 eyes. Like I have nothing against the 734 00:48:12,400 --> 00:48:15,720 people who are gays or lesbians at all. 735 00:48:15,720 --> 00:48:17,960 Zero. I don't even care what people 736 00:48:17,960 --> 00:48:21,040 believe in their sexual aspirations right? 737 00:48:21,040 --> 00:48:23,600 Or what they want to do. As long as don't come to the 738 00:48:23,600 --> 00:48:26,880 kids, I'm fine. You do it in private. 739 00:48:26,880 --> 00:48:28,640 Don't come to the kids, leave the kids alone. 740 00:48:28,680 --> 00:48:32,760 But when you see in the church, for example in Germany, the 741 00:48:32,760 --> 00:48:36,280 priest is carrying the LGBT flag and walking with his people. 742 00:48:36,280 --> 00:48:38,640 I would say this is not Christian right? 743 00:48:38,920 --> 00:48:44,680 This is anti Christian anyways. In Syria, secularism meant that 744 00:48:45,200 --> 00:48:51,200 every religious and sectarian group would have its rights to 745 00:48:51,200 --> 00:48:56,640 practise its rituals without the state intervention into their 746 00:48:56,720 --> 00:49:00,800 religious affairs. And this is the secularism which 747 00:49:00,800 --> 00:49:06,000 existed under both Assad the father and Assad the son until 748 00:49:06,000 --> 00:49:10,040 the last day. And it also meant one more 749 00:49:10,040 --> 00:49:15,600 thing, which is the suppression of any group in Syria which 750 00:49:15,600 --> 00:49:20,040 comes and tries to impose its religious views on the rest. 751 00:49:20,520 --> 00:49:26,760 So this is something important. If you have, say, 2% or 3% or 5% 752 00:49:26,760 --> 00:49:32,360 of Syrians believe that they have to convert all other people 753 00:49:32,360 --> 00:49:36,400 into their own religion, then this is when the state used to 754 00:49:36,400 --> 00:49:38,560 intervene to put them in their place. 755 00:49:39,320 --> 00:49:42,040 That you practise yours, they practise theirs. 756 00:49:42,720 --> 00:49:46,640 So this is the secular levelism which existed in Syria, which no 757 00:49:46,640 --> 00:49:51,920 longer exists nowadays. Syria is now the opposite of 758 00:49:51,920 --> 00:49:56,680 what it used to be in the past. And it's going to get worse. 759 00:49:56,760 --> 00:50:01,000 Yeah, it is going to get worse because once you empty the 760 00:50:01,000 --> 00:50:05,920 society, so you had like a 1520% Christians, you emptied them 761 00:50:06,320 --> 00:50:09,600 from the country and now you're coming after the Alawites and 762 00:50:09,600 --> 00:50:12,640 they're leaving the country en masse, going to Lebanon, they're 763 00:50:12,640 --> 00:50:15,680 going to Europe. So you're emptying your country 764 00:50:15,680 --> 00:50:20,120 anyways from it's the the real multiculturalism, not the 765 00:50:20,120 --> 00:50:23,880 engineered multiculturalism, not the imposed multiculturalism on 766 00:50:23,880 --> 00:50:26,760 the people. You are destroying that and 767 00:50:26,760 --> 00:50:31,200 creating one state and one coloured state, something that 768 00:50:31,800 --> 00:50:36,160 ironically the West says that we have to accept multiculturalism. 769 00:50:37,840 --> 00:50:41,960 And even if you don't like multiculturalism, you must owe 770 00:50:42,000 --> 00:50:45,600 you a fascist. And then in Syria they come. 771 00:50:45,600 --> 00:50:47,280 They establish A1 coloured country. 772 00:50:48,520 --> 00:50:53,920 Like the, the, the, the contradiction is, it angers me 773 00:50:54,120 --> 00:50:56,680 because then you see someone like Annalina Beibok shake 774 00:50:56,720 --> 00:50:59,280 trying to shake hands with Jolani, and Jolani doesn't even 775 00:50:59,280 --> 00:51:04,720 give her his hand. Do you understand how absurd it 776 00:51:04,720 --> 00:51:10,680 is for a minister to call herself a feminist and says, or 777 00:51:10,680 --> 00:51:12,720 we used to say, because she's now out of government? 778 00:51:12,720 --> 00:51:15,160 The same thing goes for Kayakalas and the rest of this, 779 00:51:15,320 --> 00:51:19,760 sorry to say, clowns who say we're a feminist foreign policy. 780 00:51:20,000 --> 00:51:22,320 We're there for feminism, we're there for women. 781 00:51:22,720 --> 00:51:25,720 And then they go to Damascus, they give their hand to Jolani 782 00:51:25,720 --> 00:51:31,400 and Jolan doesn't even shake hands with them and they say 783 00:51:31,880 --> 00:51:34,960 everything is OK in Syria. We lift the sanctions, we give 784 00:51:34,960 --> 00:51:38,800 them €200 million aid to govern themselves. 785 00:51:39,480 --> 00:51:41,800 What is this? I mean, you, you tell me, what 786 00:51:41,800 --> 00:51:45,360 is this? This is the beyond absurdity, 787 00:51:45,360 --> 00:51:48,080 something that even I don't have a words in my dictionary to 788 00:51:48,080 --> 00:51:49,800 describe. It's horrendous. 789 00:51:50,560 --> 00:51:52,320 You, you, you kind of sideline this. 790 00:51:52,320 --> 00:51:56,640 But what is the involvement of Israel or shall we say Zionism 791 00:51:57,000 --> 00:52:01,120 in Syria? Actually, one of the main 792 00:52:01,120 --> 00:52:07,520 considerations, one of the main reasons why the United States 793 00:52:07,520 --> 00:52:11,080 initiated the regime change operation in Syria was for 794 00:52:11,080 --> 00:52:16,600 Israel. the United States is how many thousand kilo, 10,000 795 00:52:16,600 --> 00:52:18,480 kilometres away. How many thousand kilometres 796 00:52:18,480 --> 00:52:22,320 away from Syria? There is no Syrian Army didn't 797 00:52:22,320 --> 00:52:24,240 pose any threat to the United States. 798 00:52:24,240 --> 00:52:26,640 In the contrary, Syria cooperated with the United 799 00:52:26,640 --> 00:52:31,560 States in the war against terrorism, against Al Qaeda, 800 00:52:31,560 --> 00:52:33,720 against this radicalism in the region. 801 00:52:34,920 --> 00:52:40,200 But it was Israel, because Israel wanted for Syria to sign 802 00:52:40,560 --> 00:52:45,560 the normalisation deal. And Syria, after Egypt was the 803 00:52:45,560 --> 00:52:51,120 only Arab country in the region capable of keeping the Arabic 804 00:52:51,120 --> 00:52:55,600 people in a position that they reject normalisation, they 805 00:52:55,600 --> 00:52:58,320 reject the political entity of Israel. 806 00:52:58,920 --> 00:53:05,600 So under both Hafiz and Bashar, they always called Israel a 807 00:53:05,600 --> 00:53:10,280 Zionist entity, which means they don't recognise the legitimacy 808 00:53:10,280 --> 00:53:13,480 of Israel as a as a political entity. 809 00:53:14,040 --> 00:53:18,400 And they after Egypt left the Arab Israeli conflict, they 810 00:53:18,400 --> 00:53:21,520 signed the accords, the Camp David accords. 811 00:53:21,800 --> 00:53:25,280 Syria stayed alone in the Arabic country against Israel. 812 00:53:25,960 --> 00:53:30,320 So Syria with limited resources, they cannot fight against Israel 813 00:53:30,320 --> 00:53:32,880 which receives full backing of the United States. 814 00:53:33,200 --> 00:53:38,400 So they coordinated with Iran to support and aid and train and 815 00:53:38,400 --> 00:53:43,400 equip non state actors in the region to open small front lines 816 00:53:43,480 --> 00:53:48,520 against Israel, to keep Israel in in in its borders. 817 00:53:48,960 --> 00:53:52,600 Because Israel always had these expansionist aspirations in the 818 00:53:52,600 --> 00:53:58,000 region to the extent that in 1982, Israeli soldiers were 819 00:53:58,000 --> 00:54:01,680 drinking beer in Beirut, they were in Beirut. 820 00:54:01,680 --> 00:54:05,880 So if you are in Beirut, 1 and half hour away, you're in 821 00:54:05,880 --> 00:54:09,800 Damascus. How does that make you feel when 822 00:54:09,800 --> 00:54:12,080 there is a country expanding in the region this way? 823 00:54:12,240 --> 00:54:17,040 So you have they created these conflict zones against Israel to 824 00:54:17,040 --> 00:54:20,640 kept keep them busy fighting against these non state actors. 825 00:54:21,040 --> 00:54:24,920 And those non state actors they had also legitimate grievances 826 00:54:24,920 --> 00:54:28,240 because their territories in Lebanon were occupied, entire 827 00:54:28,240 --> 00:54:32,320 southern Lebanon to Beirut was occupied by Israel. 828 00:54:32,680 --> 00:54:35,560 So Syria and Iran gave them weapons to fight against them 829 00:54:35,560 --> 00:54:39,280 and they managed and succeeded to kick the Israeli occupation 830 00:54:39,280 --> 00:54:41,840 forces out of Lebanon in the year 2000. 831 00:54:42,840 --> 00:54:46,800 And the same goes to Palestine and many of the weapons that 832 00:54:47,160 --> 00:54:52,800 nowadays the, the pro Palestine camp are proud of, they came 833 00:54:52,880 --> 00:54:57,120 either from Syria or passed through Syria, right. 834 00:54:57,680 --> 00:55:01,280 So this, this is the, this was the situation that Israel saw 835 00:55:01,560 --> 00:55:05,880 that they have to solve it because they will create one 836 00:55:05,880 --> 00:55:11,000 state only for the Israelis. There is no two state solution. 837 00:55:11,520 --> 00:55:14,240 And they want to have the freedom of action in the region, 838 00:55:14,600 --> 00:55:17,920 which is Syria is a major obstacle and the supporter of 839 00:55:17,920 --> 00:55:20,960 these resistance groups. That's why they wanted to knock 840 00:55:21,000 --> 00:55:24,440 out Assad and not for its authoritarianism or democracy of 841 00:55:24,440 --> 00:55:26,480 human or BS. You know it my friend. 842 00:55:27,000 --> 00:55:29,280 So they came after him. They removed him from power. 843 00:55:29,280 --> 00:55:32,480 And what's the result now? Palestine is gone. 844 00:55:33,800 --> 00:55:36,520 Anyone who thinks there is going to be Palestine under such 845 00:55:36,520 --> 00:55:41,120 circumstances is delusional. Greater Israel. 846 00:55:41,600 --> 00:55:46,840 Israel now exists also in southern Lebanon and Hezbollah 847 00:55:46,880 --> 00:55:50,040 doesn't push them back because they don't have supply chains 848 00:55:50,040 --> 00:55:54,640 with Syria and they're cut off from the Iran and Iraq. 849 00:55:54,640 --> 00:55:56,440 So they lost the strategic depth. 850 00:55:56,480 --> 00:55:59,080 They're isolated. The same goes for for 851 00:55:59,080 --> 00:56:03,040 Palestinian armed factions. And now Israel can fly its 852 00:56:03,040 --> 00:56:07,440 fighter jets all the way to the borders on the on the Syrian 853 00:56:07,440 --> 00:56:11,560 airspace, something that was unimaginable under Assad since 854 00:56:11,560 --> 00:56:13,720 2018. Last time Israel tried to 855 00:56:13,720 --> 00:56:17,880 penetrate the Syrian airspace, the civilian army shut it down 856 00:56:18,400 --> 00:56:21,120 an F16. And since then, Israel never 857 00:56:21,120 --> 00:56:22,840 penetrated the civilian airspace. 858 00:56:23,080 --> 00:56:27,600 Now the civilian airspace is like it's open for Israel. 859 00:56:27,760 --> 00:56:30,480 They fly every day. They go all the way to the 860 00:56:30,480 --> 00:56:34,040 borders with Iraq. They go from Syria to northern 861 00:56:34,080 --> 00:56:37,320 Iraq to the Kurdistan Region, and they bomb inside Iran. 862 00:56:39,240 --> 00:56:43,960 They have won this war. Israel won this war. the United 863 00:56:43,960 --> 00:56:47,960 States won this strategic conflict in the region. 864 00:56:48,200 --> 00:56:50,640 In the future, there could be a pushback, there could be a 865 00:56:50,640 --> 00:56:53,600 resistance. It's always possible and it will 866 00:56:53,600 --> 00:56:56,680 be. But now I'm saying as we speak 867 00:56:56,680 --> 00:56:59,480 now they have emerged victorious, we have to accept 868 00:56:59,480 --> 00:57:04,560 this reality. Otherwise, if you say no, we 869 00:57:04,560 --> 00:57:08,160 emerged victorious and they lost, means you don't have to do 870 00:57:08,160 --> 00:57:11,200 anything about it if you don't accept the defeat, right? 871 00:57:11,200 --> 00:57:13,360 Because if you don't accept the defeat, you don't work for 872 00:57:13,360 --> 00:57:17,240 victory in the future. So the Syrians have lost, the 873 00:57:17,240 --> 00:57:19,320 Lebanese have lost, the Palestinians have lost. 874 00:57:19,320 --> 00:57:21,840 In this. Iranians, they have preserved 875 00:57:21,880 --> 00:57:26,840 their territorial integrity, their sovereignty, their nuclear 876 00:57:26,840 --> 00:57:30,640 enrichment, but they have lost their allies big time. 877 00:57:31,160 --> 00:57:34,120 So there is no longer axis of resistance in the region. 878 00:57:34,120 --> 00:57:38,640 There is Iran, there is Yemen. Those are very far away, 879 00:57:38,640 --> 00:57:41,080 separate powers. They coordinate with each other, 880 00:57:41,320 --> 00:57:44,880 but there is no longer strategic depth represented by Syria. 881 00:57:44,880 --> 00:57:48,720 There is no longer Hezbollah as a regional power, basically 882 00:57:48,960 --> 00:57:52,280 posing a serious threat against Israel because they don't have 883 00:57:52,280 --> 00:57:55,440 an access now to weapon markets. And the same goes for the 884 00:57:55,440 --> 00:57:57,320 Palestinians. You're watching the footage 885 00:57:57,320 --> 00:58:00,360 coming from Gaza. They're killing Palestinians now 886 00:58:00,360 --> 00:58:05,800 as a sport, for fun. There is no need to kill 887 00:58:07,560 --> 00:58:13,040 malnutrition, the the the the poor and hungry kids going to 888 00:58:13,040 --> 00:58:15,680 collect food. But they can do it because they 889 00:58:15,680 --> 00:58:20,080 can, because they can and nobody cares and nobody will bring them 890 00:58:20,080 --> 00:58:25,120 to justice. But before you had you had an 891 00:58:25,120 --> 00:58:28,880 axis trying to counter this. They made huge mistakes. 892 00:58:29,240 --> 00:58:32,400 I don't want to get into so much details and I criticised them 893 00:58:32,400 --> 00:58:37,640 enough in the past weeks for really adopting this, what they 894 00:58:37,640 --> 00:58:42,040 call the strategic patients, sorry, strategic patients LED 895 00:58:42,040 --> 00:58:46,600 into the crumbling of the axis of resistance or what used to be 896 00:58:46,600 --> 00:58:49,160 called. I also noticed that it wasn't 897 00:58:49,160 --> 00:58:52,680 really in axis because they didn't really act as a organic 898 00:58:52,680 --> 00:58:56,280 one body, but rather they had differences among them. 899 00:58:56,560 --> 00:58:59,800 Iran wanted to lead from the back and not from the front. 900 00:59:00,520 --> 00:59:04,600 And many actors in this axis of resistance were upset by that. 901 00:59:04,840 --> 00:59:07,040 If you're the leader of the axis, just like the United 902 00:59:07,040 --> 00:59:08,680 States is the leader of that axis. 903 00:59:08,880 --> 00:59:12,160 United States leads doesn't come in the background. 904 00:59:12,160 --> 00:59:15,360 United States leads, but Iran didn't lead. 905 00:59:15,760 --> 00:59:19,760 It wanted to lead from the back and wanted for the other actors 906 00:59:19,760 --> 00:59:23,200 to carry out the hostilities. And this was a major, huge 907 00:59:23,200 --> 00:59:26,880 mistake which I think. Killed. 908 00:59:26,880 --> 00:59:30,120 Let's say this axis for now. How can I follow your work? 909 00:59:31,320 --> 00:59:34,040 First of all, thank you so much my friend for having me on the 910 00:59:34,040 --> 00:59:37,800 show. I'm posting daily live 911 00:59:37,800 --> 00:59:43,200 streamings between Monday to Friday. 11 AM is an American 912 00:59:43,200 --> 00:59:46,760 time, 5:00 PM Central European time on my YouTube channel and 913 00:59:46,760 --> 00:59:51,000 Rumble Syriana Analysis. That's the only two places I 914 00:59:51,000 --> 00:59:54,600 post and my personal X account is Kevo Calmasi and my personal 915 00:59:54,600 --> 00:59:57,640 name by shorter video, shorter commentaries, etcetera. 916 00:59:59,480 --> 01:00:03,520 And before I say goodbye, I'm going to insist that you come 917 01:00:03,520 --> 01:00:05,600 and stay with me in South Africa in the near future. 918 01:00:06,160 --> 01:00:08,840 I will definitely do that. I would be more than happy to do 919 01:00:08,840 --> 01:00:12,080 that. All right, Kawalka Mohsen, thank 920 01:00:12,080 --> 01:00:13,240 you for joining me in the trenches.