Radio War Nerd EP #543 — Syria, Hezbollah & Palestine-Israel, feat. Cyrus

You're on the right track, keep pushing! 👏

Cyrus sounds kinda like Yasha Levine. Are you sure they’re not the same person?

**responding to Jackson’s milquetoast comment below ** The sexual assaults were/ are exclusively victimizing Palestinians, typically those who have been caught in the dragnet and tossed into the black hole of indefinite detention in various Maw of Moloch type installations across “Israel”. This phenomenon has been extensively documented (by Israeli authorities as well as by Western/ UN experts. In fact, you’ll recall that the furor over the initial disclosure of this (ongoing; systematic; sanctioned) abuse some months back sparked RIOTS BY CIVILIANS AND ACTIVE IAF / security forces in DEFENSE OF THE “right” to r**e and torture detainees. So yeah. Plenty of evidence, but from 10/8 onwards. Probably a coincidence .

Have to wonder if Cyrus thinks Oct 7 was intentionally allowed to occur (casus belli)

This may be covered in the comments on previous episodes but is there any way to read or listen to any other of Cyrus’s work?

Highly recommend Ussama Makdisi’s book, Age of Coexistence: The Ecumenical Frame and the Making of the Modern Arab World (UCP, 2021) … fantastic, richly detailed and tightly argued. Excellent to consult with reference to the emergence of typologies of Sunni —and other sectarianisms in general—especially in the strictly limited sense Cyrus describes as being in the ascendancy in Syria today. But the book deserves to be read and thought with in its own right. It’s phenomenal PS Great episode guys!

Cyrus’ description of al faza’a is fascinating, and mirrors a Boston concept best exemplified by the famous exchange in The Town: - I need your help. I can't tell you what it is, you can never ask me about it later, and we're gonna hurt some people. - … Whose car we takin’?

No evidence for rape on October 7? I love these guys and Cyrus is a great guest but them never pushing back portends a character that could be described as pusillanimous.

Fantastic!! You rock! 🔥

Not really tryin to be spicy but Landis' "optimism for Syria's future" take is sounding stranger and stranger

When the stars threw down their spears And water'd heaven with their tears: Did he smile his work to see? Did he who made the Lamb make thee?

Why are Sunnis in Lebanon basically sane and Sunnis in Syria nextdoor are degenerating into these hateful fucks

I know (?) Bedouin is a transnational term, so… this might be a racist question… are the Bedouin in Syria especially sectarian right wing jerks or is this actually sadly common among (poor, rural) Bedouin throughout the Arab world? I mean, I know in Arab TV dramas for city dwellers they usually come off as cool romantic cowboy types, so are they actually the Trump voting kind of asshole bigot cowboys?

Regarding how Trump only trusts people making money at ~44:50, it reminds me of the quote from the Pirates of the Caribbean movies: “A dishonest man you can always trust to be dishonest. Honestly. It's the honest ones you want to watch out for, because you can never predict when they're going to do something incredibly stupid.” Dishonesty is at the very least, predictable.

Super interesting and illuminating

What’s your War Nerd pseudonym-in-waiting? Mine’s Peter Bartholomew

I believe that the Israeli commander of the Gaza operation previous to the current one was a Druze.

What the hell is going on in Libya these days with mike Tyson promoting boxing there.....regime change lol

Let Mark Ames know his old friend from Moscow days is trying to contact him. Avid Exile reader who he stayed with in DC anticipating anarchy.

Also, just to elaborate on the Druze within Israeli controlled territories. The Druze living in the occupied Golan Hights, do not see themselves as part of the Israeli Druze and some are/were staunch Syrian nationalists. The Golan area occupied by Israel in 1967 used to have 6 Druze villages all around the mount Hermon area. While Israel ethnically cleansed the Golan from all it's former inhabitants, including putting people on buses and donkeys sending them across the nearest border, the Druze were left in place. In the 1970s two villages were evacuated and all the population was consolidated in 4 of those villages. Golan Druze were allowed to sell their prized apples over the border in Syria and send their kids to study in syrian universities and return. Golan Druze were not only allowed to go to university in Damascus but at times received scholarships to study in the Soviet Union because of their special status. As a result, there is a deep religious divide within the Golan Druze between religious and non religious members of the community. Non religious families tend to have members who went to school in Moscow or something, and no longer feel Druze religiously. There would be huge fights over selling alcohol in bars. There used to be a thriving bar/fancy restaurant scene in the late 2000s and into the 2010s in there. One of the first restaurants opened in that scene was called "undefined" because, as someone from Majdal Shams told me "We are not Palestinian, we are certainly not Israeli, we haven't been part of Syria our whole lives, we are not Druze because we're not religious, I guess we are Arabs because we speak Arabic, but besides that, we don't know how to identify. There was a big rift after 2011 between the Asadists and the leftist/liberal pro-demonstrations ppl. Once the Syrian situation devolved into civil war, support for the opposition wained significantly. Anyways, Israelis always forget that Golan Druze don't like them at all. Golan Druze are allowed to gain Israeli citizenship but only 20% of them have taken the opportunity to do so, most of them in the past 10-15 years. Many who did take Israeli citizenship did not do that for love of Israel, but as a pragmatic/political maneuver to gain state support for their faction in a given village. Usually the secular Druze were the ones who took citizenship as a pragmatic stand, and as a protection against certain religious leaders they did not like.

Never go up against the only Druze member of an isrally gang; you don’t know what crazy shit that guy had to do to get accepted

That former chief of staff’s statement isn’t beating the allegations made by American antisemites. They are racist towards everyone else, too, but they’re still American. They’re like Homer Simpson: Only I’m allowed to ruin family vacations!

Congratulations to the GOP for creating in Syria the very islamofascism that they’ve been railing against for 25 years even though it never really existed until they created it. John McCain must be looking up from Hell with such pride.

As always a very informative episode with Cyrus. An inimitable voice.

GOAT RWN guest