Syria is In Jeopardy

 Nadene Goldfoot                                           

Syria has become part of a supply chain of arms to Iran.  Money is made by those involved.  They sell back arms to Iran.  Following the collapse of the Assad regime in late 2024, the supply chain and geopolitical landscape involving Turkey, Syria, and Israel have undergone a major transformation, characterized by Turkey's growing influence in the north, Israel's targeted actions in the south, and an underlying, tense rivalry. Omran, a Syrian citizen,  is aware of all the nasty things that are happening to Syria as they are in the hands of Jolani as President.  The people are so tired of war that they have little strength left to fight against the man who pushed his way into the governing seat.  

Omran Alhalabi explains the business deals he has heard of that involve his country, Syria, putting it in Jeopardy with Jolani, a former terrorist who hasn't forgotten how to run things. 

   Claims say that Turkish girls were trafficked say investigating prosecutors 

Turkey has positioned itself as a key power broker in post-Assad Syria, aiming to stabilize the country, return refugees, and neutralize Kurdish militants, while Israel has focused on disrupting previous Iranian-Hezbollah supply lines and creating a demilitarized buffer zone.  Israel is doing that for their own defense, not for any gain like profit.  Also, Israel's friends happen to be the Kurds, and are trying to keep them from harm of other soldiers.  

Omran even mentioned the Epstein Files that Pamela Bondi hasn't shown involving Trump that could expose some of these deals.  We know how he likes a good deal.                

                             Putin of Russia, Trump of USA

Europe is in trouble, Omran related.    They have bunkers left over from previous war.  Germany, Austria and other countries have been getting ready for something big, like a biological or chemical attack, like anthrax, for instance. "As of early 2026, European nations, particularly in the east and north, are actively strengthening their civil defense infrastructure and upgrading emergency stockpiles due to heightened fears of a broader conflict with Russia. This preparation includes updating guidance on nuclear, biological, and chemical (NBC) threats, encouraging citizens to maintain 72-hour survival kits, and renovating aging bunkers or identifying new, rapidly deployable shelters. "  We know that Ukraine is fighting Russia alone; with no help at all from NATO.  Israel has been helping with medicines, etc.  If they ever take over Ukraine, the rest of Europe is exposed, and could cave in like France did in WWII.  Again, money is being made supplying arms, weapons of all sorts at this time.                                    

Out with the Squad and in with the Quad! Featuring Fleur Hassan-Nahoum (Deputy Mayor of Jerusalem), Emily Schrader (Activist and Journalist), Ashira Solomon (African American Jew & Political Moderator) and Vivian Bercovici (Former Canadian Ambassador to Israel) will give a voice to everything Israel and Jewish from a unique female perspective. Here - Everything is on the table.  This is from Israel, and I get this news on youtube.  

I am ashamed.  All I hear on our news is about Samantha of ABC's kidnapped mother that hasn't been found who now has a million dollar reward if someone can tell where she is and the information gets her back home.  Trump and his entourage seem to know nothing about the alternative people of Iran's Ayatollah government who have already created a REVOLUTION with the Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi at the help, but still in the States.  They don't seen to understand that over 40,000 to even 120,000 or more, G-d forbid, have been slaughtered by the Iranian present government for their rebellious acts.  They haven't heard of them going into hospitals and shooting the injured from the REVOLUTION in the head.  All of this blood and gore is brought on by Trump saying that if they start killing people, he would come to their aid.  The people trusted him.  To this moment, and I'd like to see something happen right now, it hasn't happened.  So we hear how Trump wants to make a deal with the DEVIL, and one can't do such a thing.  To think that Syria will soon be in the mire of all this is very sad.  They could be the king pin to stopping it. 

That and Tariffs and buying countries such as Venezuela, Greenland, maybe Denmark, etc, Cuba,  when the East wing of the Whitehouse has been pummeled and destroyed, left a destroyed heap of trash with the promise of becoming a ballroom .  

Resource:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-9SE9mf2Rc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dS1cGdue_o&t=39s

https://www.iss.europa.eu/publications/commentary/global-risks-eu-2026-what-are-main-conflict-threats-europe#:~:text=Europe's%20top%20risk%20in%202026,as%20on%20traditional%20military%20instruments.

https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/prosecutors-investigating-claims-turkish-girls-were-trafficked

Syria's Concerned Citizen, Jack

 Nadene Goldfoot                                           

I wrote a book about Jack Huffman, who dictated his life story to me.  He knew that I had written Letters From Israel, so thought that perhaps I could take on another story to write.  This time the communication was done, not in letters, but in messages.  It was just about at the time of the Syrian Civil War which started on March 15, 2011. Jack was about 30 years old then.  The Syrian Civil War began in March 2011,  originating from pro-democracy protests during the Arab Spring that were violently suppressed by the Bashar al-Assad regime. Following the initial unrest, armed opposition groups formed, escalating the conflict into a full-scale war by the summer of 2011.  "

I got to share some things in our messages, and he to me.  I thought he was from New York, and was surprised to find he was in Syria!  That was a shock because Syria and Israel were enemies.  Here we were, becoming friends through messages.

Jack felt he was in a dangerous spot.  He was an engineer working on a building project in Damascus.  He had gone to college in Damascus and in Lebanon.  He had a step-mother and step sisters to think about.  They had decided to leave Damascus temporarily and move to Egypt.  

Here is a hotel in Egypt.  He lived in a neighborhood of like people probably all from Syria. The chapter I remember best writing about was the dog in his neighborhood and what the head of a terrorist group was going to do with it.  Jack saved its life, having a cat of his own and loving animals.   

We kept on communicating.  He thought he might be killed in the conflict so asked me to write a book.  After that, it was several years before I heard from him again.

He was back in Damascus. His real name was Omran Alhalabi.   

In Syria he had lived fairly close to the President Assad and had gone to school with his daughter.  In those days he was concerned about finding his birth mother, and working in Egypt.  He was keeping up with Assad's government dealings as well as the USA's.  

                                            

Icarius/Iakos of Sparta Found In Today's Syria

 Nadene Goldfoot                                                                                                        

    Laconia is a prefecture and region in the southeastern Peloponnese peninsula of Greece, with the city of Sparta serving as its capital. Situated in the Eurotas River valley, ancient Sparta was geographically defined by the Taygetus Mountains to the west and the Parnon range to the east.                                                              

                                                                           

      Omran Alhalabi is fighting like Iakos to change the reign in Syria of

 

Jolani. Now, we don't know about Omran, but his father, Mohammad, was a dairy cattle buyer and went out into the country for his business.  His father was also an Arab Mason .  In the 1940s, Freemasonry in Syria was a prominent, lawful, and elite social institution, with lodges often composed of Arab nationalists, intellectuals, and politicians, such as Prime Minister Ata al-Ayyubi. 

                                         Omran's father

•  Lodges included high-ranking politicians, businessmen, and intellectuals. Key figures included Ata al-Ayyubi (Prime Minister) and Hanna Malek (Secretary-General of the Syrian Premiership). : Contrary to being secret, lodges were officially registered with the government, paid taxes to the Ministry of Finance, and required a clean judicial record from the Ministry of Justice for membership.
•  Meetings often incorporated the Syrian national anthem, Humat ad-Diyar, and the three-star independence flag.  Lodges in the 1940s were often connected to the National Grand Lodge of Egypt or French Grand Orients. The influential role of these, often Christian or elite Muslim, members faded as the political landscape shifted, leading to an official ban by the Ba'athist government in 1965.  By that time, Omran couldn't join him as he was only 15.  
• These registered lodges, frequently linked to French Grand Orients, supported independence, displayed the flag with three stars, and included influential figures, functioning as a "who's who" of Damascus society until they were banned in 1965.  

Syrian rebel leader Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, who led the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad, and now goes by his birth name, Ahmed al-Sharaa (or Ahmed al-Shaar).   He began using this name in official communiqués in December 2024 to rebrand himself and bolster his legitimacy as he took control of the country.                         

 Abu Mohammad al-Jolani has worked for years to rebrand himself, but has he truly broken from his extremist past?  Omran says Jolani is still Jolani and hasn't changed;  only his methods have.

The leader of the rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham—Ahmed al-Sharaa, better known by his nom de guerre Abu Mohammad al-Jolani—has worked for years to distance himself from his al-Qaeda roots, but establishing legitimacy in the eyes of the international community will be an uphill battle. There’s also a major question about whether Syria’s instability could cause it to once again become a safe haven for terrorist groups such as the Islamic State to flourish.

                                         Dr. Aaron Zelin

Zelin’s research focuses on Syrian politics in the aftermath of the fall of the Assad regime; he studied the group that took over the country for a decade and a half prior to Assad's departure. He also explores Sunni jihadi groups in the Levant, North Africa, the Sahel, and Afghanistan as well as the trends of jihadi governance, online mobilization, and foreign fighting. He has conducted field research in Syria, Tunisia, Turkey, Iraq, Lebanon, Palestine, and Israel. Zelin has also testified and served as an expert witness in front of the U.S. House of Representatives and with the Department of Justice in federal judicial terrorism trials.

Dr. Aaron Y. Zelin is the Gloria and Ken Levy Fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, where he also directs the Islamic State Worldwide Activity Map project. Zelin is also a Visiting Research Scholar in the Department of Politics at Brandeis University, founder of the widely acclaimed website Jihadology, and a contributing writer for War on the Rock’s Adversarial newsletter. He is author of the book Your Sons Are At Your Service: Tunisia’s Missionaries of Jihad (Columbia University Press), which was nominated for the Neave Memorial Book Prize in 2020. His second book, The Age of Political Jihadism: A Study of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, was published in 2022 by Rowman & Littlefield. Zelin is currently working on a third book tentatively titled Heartland of the Believers: A History of Syrian Jihadism.

Foreign Policy reporter John Haltiwanger spoke with Washington Institute expert Aaron Zelin, who wrote a book on HTS, to find out more about Jolani’s origins, his efforts to rebrand, and what’s potentially in store for Syria now that he’s the country’s de facto ruler.

Foreign Policy: Bashar al-Assad is gone, and HTS has taken over in Syria. Can you talk about the evolution of Jolani and HTS and how we got to this point?  Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) was a Sunni Islamist political organisation and paramilitary group involved in the Syrian civil war.

Zelin: Jolani was originally a foreign fighter in the Iraq War. He went from Syria to Iraq and joined up with Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and [his organization] al Qaeda in Iraq. He spent some time in the infamous Camp Bucca prison. And then he became the emir or leader of the Nineveh region in western Iraq for the Islamic State of Iraq, which was essentially the predecessor group to what we now call the Islamic State. 

After the Syrian uprising began, Jolani talked to [Islamic State leader] Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi about a project in Syria. By summer 2011, Jolani went to Syria to build a new organization called Jabhat al-Nusra. It was essentially an official branch of the Islamic State of Iraq... 

  Omran  must feel like Iakos of Sparta in trying to take down a terrorist President. Sparta was the  ancient capital of the Laconia district of the southeastern Peloponnese, southwestern Greece.  Archidamus V, a 3rd-century BCE Eurypontid Spartan king, is a notable example of a leader perceived as weak who was removed by another. After fleeing following his brother Agis IV's murder in 241 BCE, he was recalled by Cleomenes III in 227 BC but was assassinated shortly after his return, with historian Polybius accusing Cleomenes of the murder.   Archidamus V was part of a turbulent era where Spartan leadership was often unstable, frequently involving internal power struggles and assassinations rather than external defeat.

Iakos or Agis I (flourished 11th century bc?) was an early Spartan king, traditionally held to be the son of Eurysthenes (in legend, one of the twins who founded Sparta). Because the Agiad line of kings was named after him, Agis was perhaps a historical figure. The 4th-century-bc Greek historian Ephorus attributes to Agis the capture of the city of Helos in Laconia and the reduction of its people to helot (serf) status.

Eurysthenes was a semi-mythical, 11th-century BCE founder and first king of the Agiad dynasty in Sparta, ruling alongside his twin brother, Procles, to establish Sparta's unique dual-monarchy system. As a Heracleid descendant of Heracles, he led the Dorian conquest of the Peloponnese and was considered the elder twin.

 .

 Resource:

About the Authors

Aaron Y. Zelin

Aaron Y. Zelin is the Gloria and Ken Levy Senior Fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, where his research focuses on Sunni Arab jihadist groups in North Africa and Syria, foreign fighting, and online jihadism.

https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/what-know-about-man-who-toppled-assad

https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/experts/aaron-y-zelin

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Archidamus-V

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurysthenes#:~:text=Eurysthenes%20(Greek:%20%CE%95%E1%BD%90%CF%81%CF%85%CF%83%CE%B8%CE%AD%CE%BD%CE%B7%CF%82%2C%20%22,of%20the%20Kings%20of%20Sparta.

https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freemasonry_in_Syria#:~:text=Freemasons%20had%20to%20kiss%20the,some%20content%20of%20the%20meetings.

•      

When Marathon Runners First Started: An Apropos Purim Story Of This Moment

 Nadene Goldfoot                                

                                                                            

                    Runners from one ancient Greek town to another 

                                    

Setting out from Athens, Phidippides made for Sparta journeying by way of Eleusis, Megara, and Corinth. Greek couriers of his day are believed to have been able to cover over a hundred kilometres a day, but Phidippides is said to have run the 250 kilometres to Sparta in only two days; much of it over uneven and rocky terrain.

Unfortunately, when he reached Sparta, the city was in the middle of a religious festival that forbade mobilization for war during its celebrations. When at last the Spartans set off for Athens several days later, the battle had already been fought.

• The Legend: The famous tale, popularized centuries after the event, tells of Pheidippides (or sometimes Eukles) running directly from the Marathon battlefield to Athens (about 25-26 miles) to announce the victory, after which he died.
  
  
  
• The Battle of Marathon (490 BCE) took place on the coastal plain of Marathon in eastern Greece, approximately 40 km (25 miles) northeast of Athens. The site is situated near Marathon Bay, where the Persian fleet landed, and the Athenian army camped. The battlefield features the Athenian burial mound (Soros), located about 4 km south of the modern town of Marathon.
  
  
  

• The Historical Account: According to the historian Herodotus (writing closer to the time), Pheidippides was actually a professional courier sent before the battle from Athens to Sparta to request aid, covering over 150 miles (240 km) in two days.
• The Battle (490 BCE): The Greeks, led by Athens and Plataea, defeated the first Persian invasion force led by Darius I. 
• There were 3 Kings named  Darius of Persia.  Darius I reigned (522-486 BCE) and had inherited the throne of Cyrus.  At the beginning of his reign, he permitted Zerubbabel and the Jews who had returned to Jerusalem to resume reconstruction of the Temple.  
  
        King Darius I.  Cyrus II was his father as he inherited the throne from him.  He died in 529 BCE as King of Persia.  He had many conquests of which he overran the Babylonian empire, including Judah.  He pursued an enlightened policy towards his subject peoples and in 538, granted permission to the exiles of Judah in Babylon to return to their homeland and rebuild the Temple.  (Ezra 1:1-44;  II Chon.36:22-3).  The Jewish exiles regarded Cyrus as a Divine agent.  
• Our history tells us that Cyrus II's wife (Queen) was Hadassah, or Queen Esther (Hebrew)  of our Purim Story, found in the Bible (Esther 2:7). We know Esther as being the Queen of King Ahasuerus, and through her intervention with him, and with the aid of her kinsman, Mordecai, succeeded in averting the annihilation of the Persian Jewish community planned by the king's adviser, Haman.  
•  Right now this story is also acting as a unifying agent between the Iranians of the Revolution and Israel as both love Kings Cyrus and Darius, part of their history as well.
•   Reading about this Marathon history involving them is so apropos at this moment when we all are sitting and waiting to see what President Trump will do with his fleet off shore;  will he attack as promised or will he listen  to his aides and call it off?  Yesterday he gave Iran's Ayatollah 48 hours to go along with his expectations that also include Israel's as well.   

• Darius I attacked the Greek city-states primarily to punish Athens and Eretria for supporting the Ionian Revolt (499–493 BC), where they assisted in burning the Persian city of Sardis. Darius also sought to expand his empire into Europe and secure his western frontier by suppressing the mainland Greek states that threatened regional stability.          

             Burton Holmes' photograph titled "1896: Three athletes in training for the marathon at the Olympic Games in Athens". Charilaos Vasilakos in the middle.                 

Charilaos Vasilakos (Greek: Χαρίλαος Βασιλάκος, November 1875 – 1 December 1964)^[ was a Greek athlete and the first man to win a marathon race. He also won a silver medal for a second place finish in marathon at the 1896 Summer Olympics in Athens. As a young man he studied law at the University of Athens and worked in the Athens court of first instance. He was a member of the Panellinios sports club and a dedicated long-distance runner.

           1896  Spyridon "Spyros" Louis, 1st Olympic marathon winner

When the modern Olympics began in 1896, the initiators and organizers were looking for a great popularizing event, recalling the ancient glory of Greece. The idea of a marathon race came from Michel Bréal, who wanted the event to feature in the first modern Olympic Games in 1896 in Athens. This idea was heavily supported by Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the modern Olympics, as well as by the Greeks. 

The Greeks staged a selection race for the Olympic marathon on 10 March 1896 that was won by Charilaos Vasilakos in 3 hours and 18 minutes (with the future winner of the introductory Olympic Games marathon coming in fifth). 

The winner of the first Olympic Marathon, on 10 April 1896 (a male-only race), was Spyridon „Spyros“ Louis, a Greek water-carrier, in 2 hours 58 minutes and 50 seconds.

Modern Legacy: The marathon race was invented for the 1896 Athens Olympics to commemorate this ancient heroic feat. The distance was standardized to 26.2 miles (42.195 km) in 1908. 

A full marathon is 26.2 miles (

$$

), and a half marathon is exactly half that distance, at 13.1 miles (

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). These standard road racing distances are precisely measured, with the marathon distance formalized at the 1908 Olympics. 

Modern Marathon                             

The women’s marathon was introduced at the 1984 Summer Olympics (Los Angeles, USA) and was won by Joan Benoit of the United States with a time of 2 hours 24 minutes and 52 seconds.  In 1984, the Olympic marathon finally welcomed women—and 26-year-old Joan Benoit Samuelson from the USA seized the opportunity. Remarkably, just 17 days earlier, she had undergone arthroscopic knee surgery.

Her husband is Scott Samuelson , winner of the 2015 Hiett Prize in the Humanities.

Joan crossed the finish line in 2:24:52—just a minute shy of the world record—and stunned the world. This wasn’t just a gold medal; it was the very first Olympic marathon for women, claimed with grit, grace, and guts.

Since the modern games were founded, it has become a tradition for the men’s Olympic marathon to be the last event of the athletics calendar, with a finish inside the Olympic stadium, often within hours of, or even incorporated into, the closing ceremonies. The marathon of the 2004 Summer Olympics revived the traditional route from Marathon to Athens, ending at Panathinaiko Stadium, the venue for the 1896 Summer Olympics.                

                         Height:  5'4",  115 lbs
                       

                                Samuel Kamu Wanjiru 

Samuel Kamau Wanjirū (10 November 1986 – 15 May 2011)died at 24 years old,  was a Kenyan long-distance runner who won the 2008 Beijing Olympics Marathon in an Olympic record time of 2:06:32; becoming the first Kenyan to win the Olympic gold in the marathon. He became the youngest gold medallist in the marathon since 1932.

He set the current (as of 2020) 10,000m World Junior Record in 2005 and set the half marathon world record 3 times. In 2009, he won both the London Marathon and Chicago Marathon, running the fastest marathons ever recorded in the United Kingdom and United States, respectively. He retained his Chicago title in 2010 in a season fraught with injury.

In 2011, he died after a fall from a balcony at his home in Nyahururu following a domestic dispute..

The Olympic men’s record is 2:06:32, set at the 2008 Summer Olympics by Samuel Kamau Wanjiru of Kenya (average speed about 20.01 kilometres per hour or 12.43 miles per hour). The Olympic women’s record is 2:23:07, set at the 2012 Summer Olympics by Tiki Gelana of Ethiopia. The men’s London 2012 Summer Olympic marathon winner was Stephen Kiprotich of Uganda (2:08:01). Per capita, the Kalenjin tribe of Rift Valley Province in Kenya have produced a highly disproportionate share of marathon and track-and-field winners.

Resource:

https://www.google.com/search?q=ancient+story+of+marathon+in+Greece&sca_esv=6be9334bf995a265&sxsrf=ANbL-n5GThARphv0vyL3EvRhRkD0mYqxzQ%3A1771944648312&source=hp&ei=yLqdabjqD4uc0PEPuqTeyA0&iflsig

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Marathon#:~:text=Table_content:%20header:%20%7C%20Battle%20of%20Marathon%20%7C,Marathon:%20Commanders%20and%20leaders%20%7C%20:%20%7C

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Persian_invasion_of_Greece#:~:text=The%20first%20Persian%20invasion%20of,10%2C000%20light%20infantry