WTF happened in Syria? Why did we replace a westernised tyrant with an Al Qaeda mass-murderer?
At a graduation ceremony for new Syrian army officers at the Damascus Citadel, officers chant:
“We’re coming for you, Jew, we’re coming.
We’re coming like a mountain of fire.
We’ll turn your body into ammunition
and make rivers of your blood.”This is happening as Ahmed… pic.twitter.com/Gt5eqcEcSW
— Greco-Levantines World Wide (@GrecoLevantines) August 17, 2026
Syrian Soldiers Chant ‘I Am Coming for You, Jew’
Ahmad al-Sharaa continues his charade of being a “moderate” who is ready “to make peace with Israel.” But he is no moderate.
His soldiers have massacred Alawites in Latakia, Druze in Suweida governorate, and Christians throughout the country, but especially in Aleppo and Damascus.
And now Syrian Arab Army soldiers have been chanting their genocidal threats against not just Israelis, but against all Jews. More on their genocidal chants can be found here: “Syrian army soldiers filmed chanting death threats against Jews in Damascus,” by Danielle Greyman-Kennard, Jerusalem Post, August 17, 2026:
“I am coming for you Jew…I will make your blood flow in rivers,” soldiers from the Syrian Arab Army chanted outside the historic Damascus Citadel on Saturday, according to Arab media reports and footage published on Sunday.
The soldiers stood in formation while chanting “Allahu akhbar” [sic] and “I will sacrifice my body” in protest of the situation in Gaza, according to the Arabic channel Al Araby TV.
The demonstration notably came after Israel rejected the 15-point plan for the Gaza Strip proposed by the Board of Peace, demanding Hamas first be disarmed.
Public statements and chants from security officials against Israel have intermittently circulated online since Ahmed al-Sharaa seized control of Syria in 2024. In December, footage showed members of the 60th Division threatening Israel….
It’s unclear if the Syrians really did thwart an attack on a rabbi or made up the whole story as part of Al-Sharaa’s effort to mislead the West into believing his regime was genuinely moderate. As for hotels offering kosher menus, and well-publicized discussions to return property in Syria to their rightful Jewish owners, these are part of the campaign to prove Syrian goodwill in an attempt to gain favor in Washington, and possibly a lifting of all remaining sanctions, and encouraging American investment, so badly-needed, in the country.
The National reported in June that Damascus was still investing heavily in expanding its military, with plans to double its forces to 200,000 personnel. The force would include foreign fighters and members of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and other radical groups, some of whom would reportedly be offered citizenship in exchange for their service.
Hayat Tahrir al-Sham is the group that Ahmed al-Sharaa led during the civil war, and that was the main armed force that overturned the regime of Bashar Assad. These are Sunni Arab jihadists, determined to suppress all of the country’s non-Sunni, non-Arab, and non-Muslim minorities — the Alawites (who belong to a branch of Shi’a Islam), the Druze and Kurds, and the Christians. All of these minorities have been attacked since HTS took power in December 2024.
Why is the Syrian regime intent on doubling the size of its army to 200,000 men? It no longer faces an internal threat; the civil war is over. Nor do any of its Muslim neighbors threaten it. Surely this massive effort is meant to build up an army capable of threatening Israel’s north, in order not just to take back the Golan Heights that Israel won in the Six-Day War, but to be able to thrust deeper into Israel and seize still more Israeli territory in the Galilee.
Dr. Zoe Levornik, a security researcher at the Alma Research and Education Center, described the video as “concerning,” likening it to other videos where chants of “Khaybar, Khaybar, O Jews,” alongside Salafi-jihadist messages were documented….
The “Khaybar” chant refers to Muhammad’s conquest of the Jews of the Khaybar oasis in 628 A.D., when his men attacked the inoffensive Jewish farmers, slaughtering the men, and enslaving the women and girls, including the beautiful Jewish girl Saffiya, whom Muslim took for his own sexual pleasure on the very day when his men murdered her father and husband. The chant goes like this: “Khaybar, Khaybar, ya yahud! Jaish Muhammad soufa ya’oud!” which is a threat to the Jews: “Khaybar, Khabar, O Jews! The army of Muhammad will return” (to kill you all).
Committed and fanatical jihadists, members both of Al-Sharaa’s HTS, and of the Jabhat al-Nusra, a Salafi jihadist group linked to Al-Qaeda, are now being placed in senior positions in the Syrian army and in the country’s security services.
From Israel’s perspective, Levornik said there was concern that actors with jihadist and antisemitic views will gain a state framework, weapons, resources, and command over forces deployed near the border with Israel.
But what some in Israel worry is still to come is already here: the most fanatical members of al-Nusra and HTS have. been given senior posts in the Syrian Arab Army.
The America government should be warning the Syrian government that it is aware of the extremist background of the men being appointed to high posts in the Syrian Arab Army, and is also tracking the attacks on Syria’s many minorities — the Alawites, Druze, Kurds, and Christians. The Americans could reimpose the economic sanctions that it had lifted from Syria in 2025. It could also continue its current restrictions on specific individuals in Syria regime who have been linked to human rights abuses, and to terrorist networks.
It could continue the ongoing export controls to prevent Syria from obtaining much needed advanced technology, and could also decide not to remove Syria from the State Sponsor of Terrorism list. These threats should get the attention of Ahmad al-Sharaa, and he may rethink the appointment of extreme jihadists to senior positions in the army. And what will he do, if anything, about the Syrian Arab Army soldiers who happily had themselves taped, while standing outside the Damascus Citadel and chanting “I am coming for you, Jew…I will make your blood flow in rivers”? Will Al-Sharaa distance his government from this blood-curdling genocidal chant, claiming that “these soldiers do not represent the Syrian army”? Or will he do nothing because, after all, those are his own sentiments exactly?
Here’s a previous blog entry:
The Caliph Died Like a Bitch
In last days, Islamic State leader Baghdadi sought safety in shrinking domain
.
Associates paint a picture of a man obsessed with his security, a ‘nervous wreck’ who complained of treason among terror group’s governors
BEIRUT (AP) — In his last months on the run, Islamic State group leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was agitated, fearful of traitors, sometimes disguised as a shepherd, sometimes hiding underground, always dependent on a shrinking circle of confidants.
Associates paint a picture of a man obsessed with his security and well-being and trying to find safety in towns and deserts in eastern Syria near the Iraqi border as the extremists’ domains crumbled. In the end, the brutal leader once hailed as “caliph” left former IS areas completely, slipping into hostile territory in Syria’s northwestern Idlib province run by the radical group’s al-Qaeda-linked rivals. There, he blew himself up during an October 26 raid by US special forces on his heavily fortified safe house.