The Arab Capital of Culture and Imad Mugniyah
 |
 |
Imad Mugniyah, left
UNESCO Director-General, Koichiro Matsuura, visited the Syrian capital on Jan. 8-11 to congratulate the Syrians for being nominated Arab Capital of Culture for 2008. While in Damascus, Matsuura, the head of the UN body responsible for promoting education, culture and science, commended Syrian “hospitality.” Syrian President Bashir Assad marked the occasion by proclaiming Damascus as “the capital of resistance culture .” Assad asserted that the tradition of Damascus was to strive for peace “with dignity and pride,” adding that his country will “lead a dialogue among civilisations.”
Giving poignant meaning to Assad’s and Matsuura’s words, on February 12, one of Damascus most famous “resistance” figures, Imad Mugniyah, who in recent years had benefitted from Syrian hospitality, was killed in a car bombing. Mugniyah, a Lebanese Shiite personified the cooperation and links between terrorist groups (aka. resistance groups).
He joined the Palestinian Fatah organization in 1975 and served in Yasir Arafat’s special guard, Force 17. In 1983, he linked up with the newly formed Lebanese Hezbollah organization and became affiliated with Iran’s Revolutionary Guards. Emerging as a terrorist mastermind in his early twenties, Mugniyah was implicated in the Marine Barracks bombing in Beirut in 1983 that left 241 US Marines dead, the kidnapping and killing of US officials in Lebanon, the hijacking of TWA Flight 847, the bombing of the Israeli embassy in Argentina in 1992 and the bombing of the Jewish community center in Buenos Aires in 1994 that killed 86 people.
Mugniyah was also accused of planning the cross-border raid on July 12, 2006 that killed eight Israeli soldiers and kidnapped two others, leading to the summer war between Israel and Hezbollah. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad blamed his demise on “Zionists,” although he was wanted by others, like the US, which offered $5 million for information leading to his capture.
Mugniyah is gone, but Damascus still remains a safe zone for numerous terrorist groups, like Hamas, PFLP, PFLP-General Command, Islamic Jihad and Hezbollah.
More from SNAPSHOTS
Reuters Falsely Links Jerusalem Embassy, Two-State Solution
January 9, 2019
The Jerusalem office park which houses Guatemala's embassy Multiple recent Reuters articles incorrectly report that moving the Brazilian embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem is a dramatic move away from the two-state solution. For instance, [...]
American Lutheran In Jerusalem Affirms that IDF Soldiers Are “Stormtroopers,” Backtracks
December 19, 2018
Rev. Carrie Ballenger Smith is a pastor at the Church of the Redeemer in Jerusalem. She ministers to the English-speaking congregation that meets at the Lutheran church, which is located in the Old City of [...]
The Washington Post Ignores Antisemitic Attack in Los Angeles
November 29, 2018
The Washington Post has warned about a “rising tide of antisemitism.” But as CAMERA has highlighted, The Post’s coverage of antisemitism has frequently been selective and is often politicized. More recently, the newspaper even ignored [...]
Think Tank: Iran Was Closer to Building a Bomb Than Previously Thought
November 23, 2018
A Nov. 20, 2018 report by a Washington D.C.-based think tank, the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS) argues that Iran’s illegal nuclear weapons program was “more advanced than Western intelligence agencies and the [...]
AFP Headline Casts Palestinian Assailant as Victim
November 21, 2018
Agence France Presse yesterday published a throwback headline, bringing us back to the period almost two years ago in which media outlets serially produced headlines which depicted Palestinian attackers as the victims. The wire agency's [...]
More Hypocrisy and Anti-Semitism From Linda Sarsour
November 19, 2018
In an earlier CAMERA exposé, we pointed out the self-serving allegiances and disgraceful hypocrisy of Linda Sarsour (of Women's March fame). We demonstrated how she poses as a universal activist who embraces all marginalized people [...]
Small Steps: Improved NY Times Language on Target of Hamas Rockets
November 15, 2018
Earlier this week, we pointed out how a New York Times article about fighting between Israel and Hamas neglected to inform readers that Palestinian rockets were fired indiscriminately toward civilians in Israeli towns and cities. [...]