Robert Fisk, the joke

"Take the faint outline of the old French mini-state of the Hauran where Syria's Druze communities now live in growing disharmony with the Assad regime. This month, there was a dangerous outbreak of kidnapping in the region – resolved only after Walid Jumblatt, the Lebanese Druze leader, made a series of phone calls to prominent Druze in Syria. Jumblatt himself has had a friendly-hostile-friendly-hostile-relationship with the Assad family – I may have left out a couple of 'friendlys' and 'hostiles' there – but there is no doubt where he now stands."  This is hilarious because his only source is Walid Jumblat, at whose dinner table he is a regular guest.  It is also a joke because Jumblat has as much influence among Druzes (let alone `Alawites) as I have influence among southern Baptists.


PS  Ali sent me this following comment about the article:  ""and not without reason does he speak thus. Three Syrian Druze have died in the revolution this month. Majd Zein, a Druze Free Syrian Army member, was killed during an attack on Rastan. Shafiq Shuqayr and Yasser Awwad were executed by the Syrian army when they were discovered to be helping government soldiers to defect in the area of Lajat. Now Jumblatt is calling upon all Alawites to join the rebellion instead of allowing themselves to remain a minority dependent on Assad for their survival. "I say to them that they must say they are Syrians before they are Alawites."

He fails to mention that it's the third time that Jumblat "calls" upon druze officers and soldiers to defect, also he replaced Druze with Alawites because he's fixated on Alawites,

Also this article is disgustingly sectarian

"And a final statistic to explain the revolution outside Damascus. Latest figures show that 58 per cent of Syrian's population under 24 years old are unemployed (higher, even, than Egypt), while 48 per cent of the 18-29 year-old age range – a statistic only beaten by Yemen – have no jobs. They do now, of course. Most have joined the Syrian revolt."

Does he think he has enough credibility to get away without citing sources?"