Op-Ed by Afraa Dagher

In the midst of all the useless, distracting noise generated by the Zionist mainstream media – the sole purpose of which is to hypnotize the masses in such a way that works to Israel’s benefit – is the fact that the whole of Syria is under siege and all the Syrian people are starving in some manner. And not just starving for a few days, weeks, or months, but rather for years, since the beginning of the so-called ‘Arab Spring’ that brought with it Western-created revolutions that have midwifed the diabolical children of destruction, poverty, destitution, violence, terrorism, and civil war.

Few–outside of those who living with it day by day–can imagine life under the ‘mercy’ of suicide bombers dressed by Israel and her Western lackeys as ‘freedom fighters’ and ‘peaceful protesters.’ Few–outside of those who living with it day by day–can imagine life for Syrians living under economic sanctions, imposed on all Syrians (not just the government) in the interests of inflicting misery as a precursor to desperation and then an uprising that leads to the overthrow of a government that Israel and America do not like. All of this is due to the fact that the Syrian people elected a government in the same ‘democratic’ way that the West is constantly touting, that protects the sovereignty of Syria.





And so, in typical forked-tongue manner, America, Israel and the West, in rewarding the Syrian people for exercising their ‘democratic’ rights, bring starvation and misery to innocent men, women and children. Just as they send drones to bomb innocent people in other countries, whose victims are overwhelmingly women, children and the elderly, likewise they send to Syria war in the form of prolonged starvation and want.

It doesn’t matter for the West that the people of Syria elected their president. It doesn’t matter that such sanctions on people who have been facing an aggressive war for over five years, launched on them by foreign-armed gangs and later by the US-led coalition, that such sanctions are suffocating these people, as we suffer from severe want of medicines, food, clean water, electricity and other utilities, shortages that have been made worse by the fact that the so-called ‘rebels’ bombed pharmaceutical companies, schools, power stations, oil and gas lines, and other parts of critical infrastructure.

What they didn’t bomb, they stole, i.e. anesthetics and other medicines without which life-saving surgeries cannot be performed. Predictably, the economy–that must follow as currencies do–has crashed, and where 50 Syrian pounds were once worth 1 US dollar, it now takes 400 Syrian pounds to equal one US dollar. While other countries destroyed by the West such as Libya and Yemen stopped paying salaries to their workers, Syria continues paying theirs, but who now oftentimes must choose between eating and paying their house bill, resulting in them losing their homes. In some ways, most Syrians today are now refugees even inside their own country.

Syrians aren’t the same people they were before this proxy war. We have terrorists who steal our resources. We have sanctions by the West. Added to all that are the greedy merchants who take advantage of our misery for their own profit and who trade in the blood of innocent people. Our once happy, vibrant children are now made orphans, as so many fathers were murdered by Western-backed foreign fighters. Those soldiers were our brothers, fathers, sons, cousins, nephews and friends, all ruthlessly murdered by the USA, the West and Israel. In many cases, we weren’t even afforded the ability to say goodbye to our beloved men, as their bodies were destroyed–oftentimes sent back in shreds and in pieces to their loved one–by the vicious dogs trained and sent in by the West. As a result, the children and women, the survivors of those who were martyred now require psychiatric treatment.

Those who elect to escape the misery are hampered even further, as they can’t even leave the country by airline except to go through a maddening series of stops and starts as required by sanctions. Added to this is the fact that international relief agencies and individuals who want to help are legally prevented from sending money by the same sanctions that today are starving and strangulating us to death. Is this not a siege? Yes, but not the kind of siege that the West likes to discuss in the media. What they show instead is a town that has been starved by the rebels but which is claimed in the Western media is being starved by the Assad government, done in the interests of further demonizing our president as a precursor to moving against him forcefully. The Western media, which will not show the horror which it inflicts through its proxy murderers uses photos from other holocausts, many of them inflicted in some other part of the world by the West, and then attributes it to Assad.

This is what happened to the town of Madaya. What is the real story there?

The real story concerning the town of Madaya located on the Lebanese border is as follows. Madaya was the crossing point for many of these terrorists from Lebanon to Syria, and which, from 2011, had been under terrorist control. A ceasefire had been implemented to help residents in Kafraya and Faouah, two Syrian villages in the countryside of Idlib which were under the terrorists siege for eight months. When the Syrian Army achieved success in Zabadani, the U.N. helped to have that ceasefire in Zabadni in exchange for helping Humanitarian aid to reach residents in those two villages, in which many of its kids lost their lives because of hunger, and illness, as well as the car bombs. I posted true photos from this village, on my Facebook page and was immediately warned by Facebook that my photos are including violent content!

The truth is not allowed on Facebook. However, the contradiction is that the Western media can post and transmit pictures of emaciated bodies of kids, pretending they are from Madaya when they are not. You only need to use Google to know the truth.

When the terrorists in Madya found out about that ceasefire, their reaction was to put Madaya under siege as they didn’t want that ceasefire to be achieved. So Madaya became their hostage. They stole the people’s food and medicine and then sold it back to them at impossible-to-pay prices.

In Madaya, there are three factions of terrorists: 50% belonging to Al Nusra (affiliated with Al Qaeda), 30% to Ahrar Al Sham, and 10% to the Free Syrian Army; the very same ‘Free Syrian Army’ that began its operations by bombing Syria and executing officials and most of whose members became what is today referred to as ISIS.

Another point here that needs to be discussed is how the Western media used the Madaya crisis–meaning starvation of our residents here–as a platform for demonizing the Syrian government. In the same way they used media outlets to demonize the former Soviet Union by establishing Radio Free Europe, we now see the same media platforms aligning against Syria such as CNN, Aljazeera English, and many others who deliberately use false information and pictures in controlling the narrative. Where was the Western media when other towns were being besieged such as Deir Al Zour, Nobbul, and Zahra?

Syria has become the center of the world’s attention now. Naval fleets from many countries now float nearby, surrounding Syria, and we are not naive to believe that this is just to ‘bring democracy’ to Syria, as the lying West often uses as its excuse for invasion and destruction. They are here to divide Syria and the region geo-politically and to secure Western/Zionist advantages in terms of natural resources.

It is now the Syrian/Russian coalition against NATO. We need to be aware and to distinguish what is the real agenda, and in so doing, recognize that the media is but another instrument of warfare. For you in the West please try to recognize what your governments have done against our people under the name of democracy and freedom.

Lift the sanctions on Syria, liberate the whole of Syria from the Western siege. See the whole picture not a part of it.

We need your help, as brothers and sisters in humanity.

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Afraa Dagher is a political analyst currently residing in Syria. She has made numerous media appearances commenting on the current state of affairs inside Syria as well as the nature of the current crisis. She has appeared on RT, PRESS TV, and is a regular guest on Activist Post writer Brandon Turbeville’s Truth on the Tracks radio program. Her website is www.SyrianaAfrona.wordpress.com.