The Wider Middle East Thread


Here are the published comments that led to McCormack's removal:

May 2025: "Netanyahu and his judeosupremacist cronies are determined to prolong the conflict for their own goals: either to remain in power or to annex the land."

June 2024: "The more Israel's death cult escalates toward Hezbollah, the more we will see show-of-force attacks like this and 13 April."

June 2024: “The U.S. has not been an honest broker. We have overwhelmingly enabled Israel’s bad behavior.”

May 2024: Amid talk of pushing Gaza residents into other countries, McCormack wrote, "[Israel] wants to expel them and cleanse 'Eretz Israel' of ethnic Palestinians."

April 2024: “I’ve lately been considering whether we might be Israel’s proxy and not realized it yet. Our worst ‘ally.’ We get literally nothing out of the ‘partnership’ other than the enmity of millions of people in the Middle East, Africa and Asia.”

Oct 2023: "I agree that Israel has an absolute right to respond militarily, and that civilians may legally be caught in the crossfire, but you are ignoring the requirement of proportionality. Israel’s responses always (always—not hyperbole) disproportionately target Palestinian civilians."
 
Suicide bomber blows up ancient Antiochian Church in Damascus:


On this day when our Antiochian Church commemorates All the Saints of Antioch, the treacherous hand of evil struck this evening, claiming our lives, along with the lives of our loved ones who fell today as martyrs during the evening Divine Liturgy at the Church of the Prophet Elias in Dweilaa, Damascus.

According to the initial information available at this time, an explosion occurred at the entrance of the church, resulting in the deaths of numerous martyrs and causing injuries to many others who were inside the church or in its immediate vicinity.

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The church is in an ancient Christian neighborhood that lies outside the Damascus old city's Bab Sharqi, and is in an area of many churches, chapels, and Christian cemeteries.

Some initial reports said it may have been a car bomb, but regional sources as well as the popular regional account War Monitor indicate that "A suicide bomber blew himself up with an explosive belt inside the Greek Orthodox Church of St. Elias in the Douileh area of Damascus, Syria."

And Reuters notes that "It was the first suicide bombing in Damascus since Bashar al-Assad was toppled by an Islamist-led rebel insurgency in December." Reuters says at least 20 people were killed and dozens more injured, amid conflicting emergency response reports.

Muslims lashing out at anyone they can in revenge against Israel, even though Antiochian Christians despise Talmuds.
 
It's not Muslims lashing out at Christians, it is ISIS/AQ being commissioned to stoke religious strife and destabilize Syria while Israel encroaches further into that country.

Man's totally cooked, and quite obviously not even trying to make sense anymore. In general turdworldists seem to become more fervent and unhinged as time passes on. This is quite possibly related to their fav talked up ideologically adopted shitholes being on a seemingly never ending losing spree. A similar tendency to circle the wagons and close ranks in cult-ish e-communities has been seen before, the 2020 Trump/Election Thread aftermath a prime example of that. General perception and zealotry was the same: the election was going to get overturned and Trump would be the 46th President of the USA, anyone doubting this was a FED and possibly Jewish too.

Israel, of course, has total domination over Syrian airspace and could be in Damascus by tomorrow noon if it decided to do so. Syria's military anno 2025 is on par with that of a ragtag Sahel militia, and the area south of Damascus a de facto DMZ already - that moniker refers to heavy equipment only. Any type of Syrian resistance would get bulldozed, with many of the minorities, primarily the Druze, actually welcoming and joining forces with the IDF.

Meanwhile an AQ offshoot now runs Syria, which makes the story above even less coherent. Syrian Christians on the other hand have exactly zero political and societal clout, and have in numbers dipped below 2-3 percent of the population. The Syrian Christians are widely hated by the rural Sunnis, on whom the Christians in a twisted reality are now also dependent on for their protection and security. The rural Syrian Sunnis have been high on Islamic extremism and violent tendencies for centuries, which is why the Assad Dynasty put a hard cap on them in the first place. This, by default, makes above 'explanation' even more schizo and unhinged, literal trashtake made up on the fly to somehow run cover for the muzzies.

Reality is much more mundane. Syria's Christians are getting slaughtered by Muslims because they can, because it's part of long established Muslim tradition, and because it's legally acceptable in some of the bigger and more extreme Sunni law interpretations that are currently becoming the norm in Syria. The Christians are getting hunted not because they pose a threat or have been assessed as a risk, but because they are Christians. It's a pity that some of the actual MENA Christians active on this board refuse to engage, yet do find the time to engage yours truly per PM on how dire the situation concerning Muslim oppression really is.

The BS take above is an intellectually lazy attempt of this forum's main Muslim apologetic to sweep yet another Muslim-on-Christian massacre under the rug. An individual who thinks he can silence each and any criticism of his fav muzzies by simply yelling the obligatory 'ZOG!', 'Rothschild!' and a string of other charged buzzwords whenever people start noticing the 1400 years old pattern of Muslim-on-Christian violence. Not cool.
 
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As conman narratives about 'Islam's hijacked peaceful nature wherein Muslims are the real victims' and a 'Russian conspiracy on rugpulling Israel' turn stale, boring and ultimately false, the developments in the Middle East keep coming up fast.

The current Syrian vacuum is creating friction which is bound to become a hot issue rather sooner than later. It's sucking in all the main players barring Iran. There are currently no hard agreements on the nature of the Syrian state, the spheres of influence and Damascus' regional allegiances. The regional powers have differing plans and visions hence this will become an issue.

The new Syrian government led by al Sharaa is under the patronage of the Turks and Qatari, who up till a certain point have the backing of Washington. Yet al Sharaa is a skilled diplomat, who is trying to play off different sides. The Saudis are trying to court al Sharaa and re-gain influence by waving their oil money, and promising investment. The Emiratis are doing the same. Differences between the Saudis, Emirati and Turks+Qatari are pragmatic and selfish at best, both want a strong Syrian state under their control, and are interested in re-building up its military capacities. Al Sharaa is also open to the Russians and Chinese, and has managed to get rid of American and European sanctions along the way.

Who are not interested in a united and strong Syria are Russia and Israel. Both the Russians and Israeli want the Syrian state federalized and lacking in military capacities. The Israeli because they, despite a looming US pushed Syrian addendum to the Abraham Accords, consider al Sharaa of hostile nature and a weak and divided Syrian state is not a threat, and the Russians because a federalized Syria could mean a way back into Syria through playing the division. The Russians and Israeli are allegedly meeting in private on the issue.

There currently aren't any agreements on spheres of influence either. Erdogan is itching for a Turkish military presence in Central and Eastern Syria and has twice ordered Turkey aligned militias to move south and build up the Hama and Homs Airbases, in both cases the IAF bombed the vicinity and possibly the columns itself. In both cases Turkey pulled his turd back in, and the column moved back to the Turkish bases in Northern Syria.

It is clear that Erdogan has his eyes on Syria and he isn't going to back down. The Israelis will not accept a Turkish military presence in Central Syria let alone Damascus - the Turks bringing in AD and radar assets would challenge Israeli air superiority around the Middle East+ Iran. The Israeli will instead push for federalization ergo a weak state through enabling the Druze, Kurds and possibly Alawis, and military degradation through constant military strikes.

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Imagine being a veteran of a Middle East war and finding out the guys you fought are no considered the "good guys" by our govt.


Imagine being a Soviet Afghan War veteran and finding out the guys you fought are now considered the 'good guys' by your government.

Newsflash, it's called Realpolitik and your feelings don't count. The Kremlin apparantly saw reason enough to overturn its terrorism label on the Taliban, and now become the first country to recognize the Taliban as Afghanistan's legitimate rulers. This is despite the fact that the Taliban's ideological predecessors had been busy blowing up Soviets during the 1979-1989 War, and vice versa the Taliban are ready to turn the page. The new Syrian state/HTS and the Taliban/Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan are on very friendly terms for what it's worth.





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Imagine being a Soviet Afghan War veteran and finding out the guys you fought are now considered the 'good guys' by your government.

Newsflash, it's called Realpolitik and your feelings don't count. The Kremlin apparantly saw reason enough to overturn its terrorism label on the Taliban, and now become the first country to recognize the Taliban as Afghanistan's legitimate rulers. This is despite the fact that the Taliban's ideological predecessors had been busy blowing up Soviets during the 1979-1989 War, and vice versa the Taliban are ready to turn the page. The new Syrian state/HTS and the Taliban/Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan are on very friendly terms for what it's worth.





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The Soviet Union no longer exists. Russia is a separate country and entity. Whereas not only does the USA still exist, they are in desperate need for soldiers and to get young people to care about their country. And they are losing this battle, young people here in the USA don't care about this country and hate the govt. and are not signing up to join the military. You should come here and talk to Americans about it; you will be in for a surprise.

So, now these young people can see that the "bad guys" who our men died fighting, or came back with serious PTSD, are now being supported by our govt. only 20 years later. That makes selling a career in the military very tough to do.
 
As conman narratives about 'Islam's hijacked peaceful nature wherein Muslims are the real victims' and a 'Russian conspiracy on rugpulling Israel' turn stale, boring and ultimately false, the developments in the Middle East keep coming up fast.

The current Syrian vacuum is creating friction which is bound to become a hot issue rather sooner than later. It's sucking in all the main players barring Iran. There are currently no hard agreements on the nature of the Syrian state, the spheres of influence and Damascus' regional allegiances. The regional powers have differing plans and visions hence this will become an issue.

The new Syrian government led by al Sharaa is under the patronage of the Turks and Qatari, who up till a certain point have the backing of Washington. Yet al Sharaa is a skilled diplomat, who is trying to play off different sides. The Saudis are trying to court al Sharaa and re-gain influence by waving their oil money, and promising investment. The Emiratis are doing the same. Differences between the Saudis, Emirati and Turks+Qatari are pragmatic and selfish at best, both want a strong Syrian state under their control, and are interested in re-building up its military capacities. Al Sharaa is also open to the Russians and Chinese, and has managed to get rid of American and European sanctions along the way.

Who are not interested in a united and strong Syria are Russia and Israel. Both the Russians and Israeli want the Syrian state federalized and lacking in military capacities. The Israeli because they, despite a looming US pushed Syrian addendum to the Abraham Accords, consider al Sharaa of hostile nature and a weak and divided Syrian state is not a threat, and the Russians because a federalized Syria could mean a way back into Syria through playing the division. The Russians and Israeli are allegedly meeting in private on the issue.

There currently aren't any agreements on spheres of influence either. Erdogan is itching for a Turkish military presence in Central and Eastern Syria and has twice ordered Turkey aligned militias to move south and build up the Hama and Homs Airbases, in both cases the IAF bombed the vicinity and possibly the columns itself. In both cases Turkey pulled his turd back in, and the column moved back to the Turkish bases in Northern Syria.

It is clear that Erdogan has his eyes on Syria and he isn't going to back down. The Israelis will not accept a Turkish military presence in Central Syria let alone Damascus - the Turks bringing in AD and radar assets would challenge Israeli air superiority around the Middle East+ Iran. The Israeli will instead push for federalization ergo a weak state through enabling the Druze, Kurds and possibly Alawis, and military degradation through constant military strikes.

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Things popped off fast, yesterday a combined Bedouin tribesmen+ HTS/Syrian government force moved on Suwayda after a series of mutual provocations. These moves are 100 percent backed by Turkey. The Suwayda Military Council is supported by the Israelis, and already clamoring for international intervention. The HTS+Bedouin force is closing in on al Suwayda city, the IAF is striking HTS+Bedouin columns the air. Several massacres of Druze by Sunni Bedouin have been reported.

The US is taking sides with HTS/ the Syrian government. US envoy Tom Barrack has on several occasions in the last week made it known that all armed Syrian factions need to disband and be integrated into the New Syrian Army. Of possible relevance: al Sharaa has allegedly met with Israeli officials last week in a third country, and it could very well be that some deals were agreed on.

HTS at approximately 15 km from Suwayda City





Israeli strikes on Syrian tanks





US envoy Tom Barrack taking the side of Damascus vs Israeli proposed federalism (SDF + the Suwayda Military Council).





HTS convoys on the way, Syrian government forces outnumber and outgun the Druze fighters by quite a margin



 
In the last 24 hours HTS+ Bedouin tribes forces were able to reach central Suwayda, yet have since been pushed out towards the city's perimeter. The number of Israeli airstrikes on HTS+Bedouin tribal forces has greatly increased, and yesterday an Israeli cabinet emergency meeting was held. Despite being able to push HTS+tribals out of the city, the Suwayda Military Council remains outgunned, cut off and outnumbered. Wild rumour: the US has asked Israel to refrain from intervening and halt its airstrikes.

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HTS+Bedouin convoys and Syrian military bases in Daraa and Suwayda are getting targeted by Israel.



Conflicting reports about a Syrian mobilization, either way fighters from many parts of Syria are on their way to Suwayda





Axios published a story in which Washington allegedly has told Israel to stop targeting HTS.



Many videos and reports on Druze and Christian communities getting targeted, this Greek MEP is calling for intervention.



Israeli Minister of Diaspora Affairs calls for al Sharaa/Jolani to be eliminated.

 
The battle for as Suwayda is over. Al Sharaa has ordered his men to vacate Suwayda City and to withdraw from the Suwayda governate itself as well. The Suwayda area will from hereon receive a status aparte and be governed by local Druze sheikhs and elders, all of which are hostile to Damascus as the pro Al Sharaa Druze faction is decimated. It's a massive setback for al Sharaa and his Turkish and Qatari backers.

Below is al Sharaa's speech in which he consistently emphasizes Syria's territorial integrity, and the foreign conspiracies aimed at dismantling Syrian unity. Also notice how there is a clear change of tune on al Sharaa's part, from 'We must bring the seditionists and separatists to heel' to 'we simply came to Jabal al Druze to break up the Bedouin-Druze tribal clashes'. The man is clearly in damage control mode after the Israelis made him bend the knee, large parts of his armed followers came to destroy Bani Marous and will not look kindly on his cuckery.


During the last 72 hours the fighting had taken a decisive turn in HTS' favour. HTS + Bedouin tribes had taken over most of the Western countryside and around ~80 percent of Suwayda City had fallen under their control. Despite the accelerating Israeli airstrikes on their positions and convoys HTS had continued advancing, taking advantage of their battle seasoned fighting force and superior firepower. It was only after Netanyahu ordered Syrian government ministeries to be targeted the tide turned. Word on the street is that al Sharaa was shown an ultimatum, withdraw immediately or be eliminated and have the Damascus government be reduced to rubble. In the end al Sharaa chose for the preservation of himself and the Syrian state.

Situation a couple of hours before the withdrawal. HTS had basically secured a victory on the battlefield.

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Israeli strikes leveling the Syrian Ministry of Defence.



Nevetheless the Syrian dossier will remain hot and volatile, and al Suwayda was just the first of a series of battles on Syria's future. As outlined before, there are currently zero agreements and deals on zones of influence and Syria's government shape & form between the regional stakeholders. All the main players want an as big as possible piece of the pie, and that's something that in the Middle East undoubtedly will lead to frictions on the edges and possibly beyond that.

The first round of that intermittent clash just went to Israel, what else is new. The Syrians, who stand under Turkish patronage, attempted to kneecap the nascent Druze autonomous region and establish full territorial control. The Suwayda Military Council is under command of Druze Sheikh al Hijri, who in turn is under direct command of the Israeli security and Intel apparatus. The Israelis had warned both al Sharaa and Erdogan to not move on the SMC and to not attempt to re-militarize the de facto DMZ South of Damascus because they would regret it, and in the end they did.

Some other observations:
1. The Turks did not attempt to militarily support HTS.
2. The SDF issue is heating up again, and despite an agreement on disarmament signed by SDF leader Abdi Mazloum large swaths of the SDF aren't eager to integrate in the New Syrian Army, which is a explicitly Islamist structure and rife with hardcore foreign and native jihadists
3. Turkey launched several airstrikes on Deir Hafer 2 days ago, first in weeks.
4. Al Sharaa does not control hard-line elements in his new Security Directive/New Syrian Army, which is why there still is some fighting in al Suwayda as several radical groups refuse to obey the withdrawal order
5. Al Sharaa's status just took a massive hit
6. An eventual HTS move on SDF has become more likely, especially as early stages of disarmament agreements are not honored
7. In that case roles will likely be reversed, with Turkey will supporting the New Syrian Army militarily and Israel having a more restraint posture
8. The current Suwayda ceasefire remains fragile with many instances of fighting still reported
9. The de facto newly established Druze autonomous zone does not have landbridge to Israel, which might become problematic rather sooner than later. Possible scenarios talking about a David Corridor to Israel seem farfetched, there are 1.3 million Sunnis living in Daraa. A possible lifeline to US held al Tanf would be more probable.

The Druze governate that from today onwards is autonomous yet at the same time has a leadership (al Hijmi) that is fully controlled by Israel
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The Druze people in the Levant, total number is about 1.2 million with more than half living in Syria.
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A possible Druze lifeline to al Tanf
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^
It ain't over, as Bedouin forces rally against the Druze.

The Bedouin tribal forces have again started to attack Suweida province, currently clashing with the Druze resistance in the western countryside of Suweida. Reportedly they managed to seize control over several villages. Tribal forces from other provinces have also arrived in the region, they were previously stationed in Daraa and Damascus coming from Homs, Hama, Idlib and Aleppo.
 
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This is basically an attempt at implementing the Oded Yinon Plan, a whitepaper from the Israeli government published in 1982 which advocated balkanizing and breaking up all Arab states in their region (and beyond, as was the case with Libya and Sudan) into small, unstable warring ethno-states. The Kurds, Druzes would become Israeli allies/client states and the rest would be failed warring Muslim states without modern armies. Christians would be forced to emigrate through persecution by Israeli proxies like ISIS.

The implementation of the Oded Yinon Plan is a significant step towards the construction of Greater Israel, with the annexation of southern Lebanon and Syria as the first steps.

Timing is of the essence, they have seized the opportunity with Russia occupied in Ukraine and China still militarily uncommitted in the region.


Despite the official pretext of “protecting Druze minorities,” the reality is strategic absorption. Israel is executing the Yinon Plan’s second phase: not just fragmentation, but territorial annexation via sectarian alliance.

The Israeli Air Force’s strikes on Damascus command infrastructure, including the Presidential Palace and General Staff HQ, are now clearly part of the prep phase, decapitating central authority to remove any resistance to redrawing the map.

The annexed Golan now borders a de facto Druze statelet. If incorporated, Israel gains strategic depth and demographic leverage over southern

Syria.The Yinon Plan foresaw Syria broken into Alawite, Sunni, Kurdish, and Druze zones. The rise of HTS-Julani rule in Damascus + Druze “autonomy” in the south fulfills this logic step by step.

Smotrich’s fantasy of Israel’s borders extending to Damascus is no longer rhetorical. The Israeli state has moved from indirect proxy destabilization to direct kinetic border shaping.


 
Yesterday's ceasefire technically held but fighting has fully resumed nevertheless. After al Sharaa signed off the HTS withdrawal several executions and forced displacement of Arab Bedouins occured, which prompted the Bedouin tribes to resume fighting, and these tribes on paper do not answer to al Sharaa. Mobilization amongst Bedouin tribesmen throughout Syria and beyond is taking place. The Bedouins, who call themselves the Arab Tribal Army, are on the offensive. Israeli airstrikes are at far lower rate than yesterday. Many suspect the Arab Tribal Army to at least in part be a play on the al Sharaa/Erdogan camp, word is that HTS fighters are amongst the Bedouin.

Some videos on the Tribal mobilization, lots of declaration of jihad and scholarly fatwas on the permission to kill and enslave









Current frontline

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