Libyan Civil War Megathread

[DontSayBanana]

A jewish homeland in Alsace-Moselle instead of Palestine is sure creative 

Back when they called it Lebensraum, sure.

[Zoupa]

Thank you France and the UK for not being a bunch of pussies and refusing to support change in a dictatorship.

And thanks to Canada as well for their normal token contribution.

Well, Sarkozy is full of shit, but it's hard not to see the upside these days. We'll see how it turns out.

[Berkut]

Thank you France and the UK for not being a bunch of pussies and refusing to support change in a dictatorship.

And thanks to Canada as well for their normal token contribution.

Well, Sarkozy is full of shit, but it's hard not to see the upside these days. We'll see how it turns out.

Yeah, there certainly are no guarantees.

At least at this point if Libya ends up all fucked up they won't have anyone to blame but themselves.

[viper37]

What is it with Arabs and shooting fireworks into the air on festive occasions?

Because of this?

[Caliga]

 

Libyan Jew blocked from Tripoli synagogue

David Gerbi, a returned exile, finds synagogue shut again a day after he forced it open and says he received threats
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 4 October 2011 03.23 EDT

A Libyan Jewish man who returned from exile in Italy to join the revolution against Muammar Gaddafi has been blocked from trying to restore Tripoli's main synagogue.

David Gerbi said he went to clean rubbish from the building on Monday, a day after he broke through the entrance with a sledgehammer to great fanfare. A messenger at the scene warned him, however, that armed men were coming from all over Libya and would target him if he did not leave the area.

Gerbi said he was told a mass anti-Jewish demonstration was planned for Friday in Martrys' Square, which used to be named Green Square under Gaddafi's regime.

Breaking down in tears, he criticised Libyan authorities for withdrawing their support, calling his efforts a test of the post-Gaddafi regime's commitment to democracy and tolerance.

"If they want to prove that it's different from Gaddafi ... they need to do the opposite," Gerbi told reporters after leaving the synagogue in Tripoli's walled Old City.

The head of the National Transitional Council that is governing Libya was dismissive when asked about Gerbi at a news conference, saying it was too early to worry about rebuilding a synagogue when revolutionary forces were still fighting Gaddafi supporters.

"This matter is premature and we have not decided anything in this regard," Mustafa Abdul-Jalil said. "Everyone who holds Libyan nationality has the right to enjoy all rights, provided that he has no other nationality but Libyan."

Libyan-born Gina Bublil-Waldman, president of the San Francisco-based Jimena, or Jews Indigenous to the Middle East and North Africa, agreed it was too soon to try to return.

"I really do not believe that the Libyan people are ready to reconcile with the past and their history and the wrongs that they have done to the Jewish community," she said, although she called Gerbi's efforts sincere and honourable.

Gerbi, who fled with his family to Italy in 1967, said he was surprised because he had permission from the local sheik and verbal permission from NTC representatives. Gerbi's colleague Richard Peters said several men armed with assault rifles later appeared to guard the building, although none were visible later that day.

It was not clear who was ultimately behind the warnings of violence against Gerbi, although he said the man who gave him the message said there was a Facebook and YouTube campaign against him.

It was a bitter disappointment for Gerbi, coming a day after he had taken a sledgehammer to a concrete wall and entered the crumbling Dar al-Bishi synagogue, which has been filled with decades of rubbish since Gaddafi expelled Libya's small Jewish community early in his rule.

He and a team of helpers carted in brooms, rakes and plastic buckets to begin clearing the debris. But on Monday, the wooden door was again closed with a chain and padlock. Gerbi said people who had supported him were now distancing themselves.

The 56-year-old psychoanalyst appealed to the new leadership to set an example of tolerance, saying that while Gaddafi "wanted to eliminate the diversity, they need to include the diversity".

Libya's new leaders have promised to lead the oil-rich North African country to become a democracy after toppling Gaddafi in a civil war that began in mid-February. Abdul-Jalil and the de facto prime minister, Mahmoud Jibril, promised on Monday to step down after the country is fully secured in a bid to reassure the public they will not suffer under another dictatorship.

Gerbi's family fled to Rome in 1967, when Arab anger was rising over the war in which Israel captured large swaths of territory from Jordan, Syria and Egypt. Two years later, Gaddafi expelled the rest of Libya's Jewish community, which at its peak numbered about 37,000.

Gerbi said his fellow rebels called him the "revolutionary Jew" and that he was thrilled when he rode into the capital with fighters from the western mountains as Tripoli fell in late August.

Gerbi refused to give up, saying he would stay in Libya and press his case with the government.

"I don't want to be a hero, I don't want to play martyr, I just want to be here to support the new Libya and the democracy and to build this," he said.

[Tamas]

I am shocked, shocked I say!

[Ed Anger]

That expense of missiles to knock down their AA network sure was worth it.

[Tamas]

That expense of missiles to knock down their AA network sure was worth it.

Keynes approved it.

[Grey Fox]

That expense of missiles to knock down their AA network sure was worth it.

We did it for the Lulz? Black Hat Foreign Policy?

[HisMajestyBOB]

That expense of missiles to knock down their AA network sure was worth it.

We did it for the Lulz? Black Hat Foreign Policy?

To make the Air Force feel relevant again.

[Ed Anger]

That expense of missiles to knock down their AA network sure was worth it.

We did it for the Lulz? Black Hat Foreign Policy?

To make the Air Force feel relevant again.

The Navy shot most of the tomahawks I believe. 

[Neil]

That expense of missiles to knock down their AA network sure was worth it.

Keynes approved it.

I think he's going by The Minsky Moment right now.

[HisMajestyBOB]

That expense of missiles to knock down their AA network sure was worth it.

We did it for the Lulz? Black Hat Foreign Policy?

To make the Air Force feel relevant again.

The Navy shot most of the tomahawks I believe.

Didn't the USAF fly a few token missions?

[citizen k]

SIRTE, Libya (Reuters) - Onto a battlefield littered with bizarre homemade weaponry, Libya's ruling militia fighters have rolled out their weirdest contraption yet: a concrete and steel behemoth that's a cross between a bulldozer and a battleship.

The towering monster, which appeared Wednesday in Sirte to help capture Muammar Gaddafi's home town, has a battleship's pointed prow and portholes along its sides with steel covers that can be pulled down.

Clad in concrete sandwiched between steel plates, it is painted in the colors of the new national flag -- red, green and black. Writing on the bow declares "there is no God, but Allah, and Mohammad is his prophet."

Built onto a tracked bulldozer in then-rebel workshops in the city of Misrata, the new weapon is designed to smash through roadblocks and barricades.

It was meant to make its debut in the fight for Tripoli, but when the capital fell swiftly to the rebels, the souped-up bulldozer was never brought in to do battle. Until now.

"It's to clear dumped cars and shipping containers," said Gebril Ali, the burly driver from Misrata, a heavy plant operator in civilian life.

He expects to be shot at with bullets and rocket-propelled grenades, but reckons the vehicle can withstand that. Heavier weapons might be a problem though.

"Maybe I'm not coming back," Ali said, suddenly reflective. He then erupted into laughter that revealed several broken teeth. "But my mind's made up. I'm stubborn."

The vehicle is also manned by four gunners who have five heavy machine guns to fire and a tank gun mounted on top. Several AK47 assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenade launchers sit inside next to water bottles and bananas.

There is also a helmet full of hand grenades, just in case.

"We will be watching from the portholes and if we see them trying to flank us, we'll shoot them," said crew member Ali Abdullah, a 20-year-old student. Asked if he thought the contraption was safe, he said: "We have faith in God."

The driver's task is made all the harder by the fact that he cannot see out of the vehicle. A video camera mounted on the front was damaged by gunfire and he has to rely on two comrades peering out of slits at the front to guide him.

A commander wearing a gold-braided ship's captain's hat sat on top and shouted directions as Ali maneuvered up to the battlefront. The craft smashed into a lamp-post.

It then came to a halt next to a mosque, and all scrambled out to go pray.

Just beyond the mosque and a turn to the right is a street constantly strafed with small arms and rocket fire by Gaddafi's forces.

The men planned to drive the beast down the street and smash their way into the center of Sirte. A Reuters news team was invited to come along for the ride, but declined the offer.

Commanding a posse of pick-up trucks mounted with heavy machine guns, the man in the sea captain's hat, postman Lutfi al-Amin, plans to follow.

"When it clears the way, we will follow," Amin said. Asked about his headgear, he said: "It's my lucky hat!"

If anyone can find a picture of it, please post.

[jimmy olsen]

Sounds awesomely post apocalyptic!