Syrian activists say these five children were killed by the shelling of pro-Assad forces in Homs, Syria on Jan. 26. / Local Coordination Committees in Syria
I and many other progressive Jews demand an end to Syrian genocide and a boycott of Russian and Chinese products– so as long as those countries refuse to join in active measures to replace the Assad government. I call upon the world community to intervene and stop the genocide being waged by the Assad government against the people of Syria.
The world must not sit idly by on the blood of the democracy- and human rights-seeking people of Syria against their brutal dictatorship. The Syrian regime has already killed more than 5,000 of its own citizens, and tens of thousands have been wounded or arrested and tortured. This is a crime against humanity, and it deserves a powerful intervention from the West.
Those who condemned Israel for its invasion of Gaza must recognize that the deaths in Syria are already three times larger than the deaths of that misguided activity of Israel that earned it the condemnation of much of the world. Syrian President Assad and his military and police henchmen must be brought to trial at the International Court of Justice. It is time now to actively and non-violently engage in active measures to replace the Assad government. The economic noose that the U.S. has started to use against Iran is immediately needed against Syria’s genocidal regime. Massive economic and human right support (including medical supplies, physicians and nurses, temporary clinics, food and rations) are desperately needed by the people of Syria who are being shelled and bombed and massacred by their government.
Strong and universal condemnation of Russia’s and China’s cynical role in preserving the dictatorial regime of Assad should be followed by a global boycott of goods from Russia and China until they join in the efforts to change the genocidal regime in Syria. Progressive Jews oppose the use of military force to achieve these ends, but there are many non-violent means that have not yet been tried to weaken the Assad regime, and they must be implemented immediately to help stop the massacre that has been going on for months but that has recently escalated in a bloody and horrific way in Homs and other Syrian cities.
Please circulate this statement widely. For interviews with me, please call 510 644 1200 or email ashley@tikkun.org.
Well consider this a compliment. This carnage has been going on for months. I guess it’s never to late to come around and condemn mass murder. I seem to recall you jumping oh so fast with Egypt. You needed a bit of prodding to condemn Qaddaffi and and months to wake up to events in Syria. It usually takes you a matter of hours to condemn Israel for scratching the pinky of a Palestinian rock thrower. Well I congratulate you for finding authentic villains who are not know as the US or Israel.The Assad family have been mass murderers for decades, starting with the massacred of thousands in Hama in 1982.I don’t see Assad submitting himself to a trial. He has crossed a line and will suffer the same fate as Qaddafi.
Yes, Don, I agree with you. It’s very refeshing to hear Michael condemn this massacre, instead of the usual knee-jerk condemnation of Israel. I’ve yet to hear any condemnation from him or others on this blog of the massacre of Christians in Egypt, Nigeria, Pakistan and many other places by practitioners of the Religion of Peace. Maybe I missed it. I can only stomach reading this blog on an occasional basis. Mostly there are kind words of appeasement or glorification. But, as I said, it’s nice to hear that, in Michael’s world, there is room for other ‘bad guys’ apart from Israel and the US.
At the risk of making Lerners head explode, count me in. Great column
How will we work, beloved, to stop all murder no matter where it is occurring? We cannot feel any superiority as long as precious lives are being destroyed, and it is blasphemy when it is done in G-d’s name.
This is a good time, I think, to mention that Russia and China represent a different singularity, a different story, calendar, and soul than ours. It is an entanglement within the story of the Ein Sof and is due to the error of Christ. A boycott is a good idea, not as a punishment, but as a way to begin separating from this entanglement that really began last century (in the case of Russia) and at some other time for China (and that due to the Roman Emperor Constantine’s co-opting the Christ-story).
Can appreciate your work on Human selected password frequencies.