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Jan. 6, 2025 - Judging Freedom - Judge Andrew Napolitano
10:09
Kevork Almassian : How Dangerous Is Syria Today?
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Time Text
To siege Hezbollah, which means you have to cut the supply chains of Hezbollah from Syria.
And Assad rejected it.
And in a matter of few days, the regime change restarted, reignited in the country.
Just a few hours after Netanyahu gave a public speech and said that Assad is playing with fire.
So Israel invested a lot, and also with HTS, for your respected audience.
I mean...
The Wall Street Journal, the UN peacekeeping forces, the Israeli press, the Israeli officials, they all acknowledged that they have given weapons, money, training, and also medical treatment to Jolani's group when they used to occupy the borders between Syria and the...
Even though this is a felony under American law and under British law?
Yes. And the former head of Mossad on Al Jazeera, he was with Mahdi Hassan.
He was challenged by Mahdi Hassan about this case.
And he said, you're giving weapons or you're giving medical treatment to Al-Qaeda affiliated group.
They attacked your number one ally in the United States.
And he said, but they never attacked us.
According to my memory, he said the Al-Qaeda never attacked us.
And we're dealing with them on a tactical level, on a humanitarian level.
And then Mehdi Hassan said, okay, what if a Hezbollah militant was injured?
Would you take him into Israel and treat him?
He says, no, we don't treat Hezbollah militants because they have conducted acts of hostilities against Israel, unlike Al-Qaeda.
So the question here is, I'm not saying, I'm not calling for attacks on Israel.
I'm just asking a simple question.
Why Al-Qaeda and ISIS never attacked Israel?
In this case.
And one time there was a minor clash between the IDF and ISIS on the borders.
ISIS issued an apology for Israel in this case.
So these are all good questions we have to ask.
I was watching a video, an interview for Professor Mikhail Hudson.
And he says, basically, Al-Qaeda is a contract army for the United States in the region.
And after all these developments from Afghanistan to Syria to Libya, it gives the impression that, I'm not saying that the U.S. can control all Al-Qaeda elements, but definitely on the top level of the hierarchy, there is some sort of intelligence communication in order to direct these militants against the enemies of the United States.
Who or what governs what a month ago was the sovereign territory of Syria?
How has it been divided?
Now, before Assad is gone or after?
After Assad is gone.
Today, who governs the various geographical areas that were once governed by Assad?
So, on the eastern shore of the Euphrates, the Americans and the Kurdish militias, the SDF, Syrian Democratic Forces, this is one-third of the country anyways.
Now, between Aleppo to Idlib, To Homs, to Damascus, it's mostly HDS under Turkish intelligence.
The Russians have a presence in Latakia and in Tartus in the coastal side of Syria, but they don't have any strong military presence in order to keep the posture of the region or protect the minorities there because they are being now, they are slaughtered by HDS, basically.
And in the south, we have a governorate called Asweda.
Asweda is mostly populated by the Jews, and they're asking for an autonomy now.
I think what is going to happen to Syria is they will...
Before you predict the future, how much of Syria has been taken by the Israelis?
Actually, larger than the Gaza Strip.
So they already captured the Golan Heights in 1967, and now the territories they occupied is way larger than the entire Gaza Strip enclave, basically.
Do they view themselves as a provisional government, or do they view these conquered territories as part of Israel?
It's part of Israel.
So they consider this part of Israel forever, and they say they have occupied the highest hill in Syria, and now they have the dominance, the aerial dominance and the technological dominance, basically, because when they install their satellites, then they will oversee the entire region in Damascus and also in Lebanon itself.
So the Israelis have the upper hand there, and they already posted that Mount Hermon is now part of Israel, and they have annexed it, and I don't think that the Syrian side is capable of pushing.
Where is this going in the next five years?
I think the first phase is going to be federalization of Syria.
So I'm not against a federal system, but for using federalism to unite between the already divided countries in the region, because the region is already divided since 100 years by Sykes and Pico.
So if Iraq and Syria want to create a federal system of Lebanon or Jordan or Palestine to unify and create an economic integration between these countries, that's...
Amazing. But if you want to divide what was already divided, which means Syria will be divided into four to five different mini-states, federal states, then this is only going to create more conditions for more internal inner conflict between these groups, because they will be ethno-states,
like ethno-religious states, just like in Israel, right?
And they will start fighting against each other, and this will create the conditions for the U.S. and Israel to present themselves as the savior of minorities, especially the Jews and the Kurds.
This is where the country is headed to.
Federalism at the beginning and then the balkanization of the country.
And I hope I am wrong, Judge.
And I will definitely be happy that I would be wrong about this case because I would like to see one unified country.
I'm Syrian at the end of the day.
But am I hopeful?
Am I optimistic?
No. What about Al Jelani?
What becomes of him?
Jolani said that he's not going to do elections for the next four years.
So he's going to stay another four years.
He said that they need three years to redraft the constitution for Syria.
Although he changed the curriculum in a matter of three days in the country.
And if you want to know, he is changing the curriculum.
You mean in the schools?
Schools, yes.
He removed, for example, in the science textbooks, the theory of evolution, and that our brains were developed in the past, and he only insists on the religious texts that we were created as Adam and Eve.
There is no evolution at all.
And he's changing, for example, the concept of martyrdom from someone who dies for the sake of his country to someone who died for the sake of God.
And also in the textbooks now, the Jews and the Christians are the people whom God is angry at, according to the new curriculum of Syria.
So he's Islamizing basically the Syrian education system, something that I mentioned at our first conversation, that he will try to have his grip over the education, over the press, over the religious affairs.
So he has the...
Control the minds and the hearts of the people.
And then if they revolt against him, he has the weapons.
And in the next stage, he will redraft the constitution in the next three years.
So three years is going to be the de facto ruler.
And in the fourth year, he says he will held elections.
Will he participate in his elections?
I think it depends on the conditions in the country.
But in four years, Syria has moved from one of the safest countries in the world into a jungle, lawless jungle.
So what could you expect in four years?
Is it safe for Christians in Syria?
No, not at all.
I mean, I'm reading daily reports from Syria, especially in Homs and in Latakia, killings against Christians and against the Alawites, especially against the Alawites.
I've seen countless videos, Judge, of summary executions, humiliations.
They are capturing men en masse in some town, and they are...
Capturing this on video, basically.
They're either executing them or saying that you have to howl like a dog or we will kill you.
So they're humiliating the people like that.
We've seen lots of robberies and because the Christians are trying to defend themselves and they're getting killed in the process.
One of the Christians were decapitated last week in the Valley of the Christians in Homs.
So there's so many examples that are documented on video that I'm already posting on my X account and those are only the documented ones.
So imagine the ones that we couldn't document.
So if somebody comes and says that HGS has reformed itself, yeah, probably they have started wearing some suit and ties, etc., to give the impression.
But on the ground, what their militants are doing is basically ethnically cleansing the Christians and the Allahites from the country.
And the next step, you will see these NGOs.
Come and say for the minorities, we opened for you the resettlement programs, refugee status, etc.
How many Christians left in the country, Judge?
They were 10% of the people.
They're probably 2% or something now of the country.
So nothing left.
Got it.
Got it.
Good work.
Thank you.
Not a happy story.
But as you said at the outset, maybe something good will come of this.
Much appreciated, my dear friend.
I hope we can have you back again soon.
Thank you so much, Judge.
Of course, of course.
Coming up later today, Matt Ho at 2 o'clock, Colonel Karen Kwiatkowski at 3, and of course, the always worth waiting for, Colonel Douglas McGregor at 4. Judge Napolitano for Judging Freedom.
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