RUTHFULLY YOURS

MOSCOW—In Syria, Russian President Vladimir Putin is trying to take a page from his Ukraine playbook by keeping the West guessing about his plans, employing the military art of deception known in Russia as maskirovka, or camouflage.
Analysis

Last year he surreptitiously sent Russia’s army into Ukraine, reversing the advance of Ukrainian government forces and bringing pro-Russia rebels a more-favorable peace settlement. Now, he’s repeating the gambit in Syria: shoring up his ally, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, and ensuring the Kremlin will have a central role in deciding the country’s future.

Russia stepped up its attack on Mr. Assad’s opponents Wednesday, firing cruise missiles into Syria from warships in the far-off Caspian Sea. At North Atlantic Treaty Organization headquarters, the U.S. ambassador said Russia had built up a battalion-sized ground force in Syria, one equipped to take on a bigger mission than just defending Russian military bases there.

The Orthodox Christian Church, which holds an important place in an insurgent Russia, has described its government’s fight against the Islamic State and other jihadi opposition groups in Syria as a “holy war.”

According to Vsevolod Chaplin, head of the Church’s Public Affairs Department,

The fight with terrorism is a holy battle and today our country is perhaps the most active force in the world fighting it. The Russian Federation has made a responsible decision on the use of armed forces to defend the People of Syria from the sorrows caused by the arbitrariness of terrorists. Christians are suffering in the region with the kidnapping of clerics and the destruction of churches. Muslims are suffering no less.

This is not some new “gimmick” to justify intervention in Syria. For years, Russia’s Orthodox leaders have been voicing their concern for persecuted Christians. Back in February 2012, Putin met with representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church. They described to him the horrific treatment Christians are experiencing around the world, especially the Muslim world:

The head of External Church Relations, Metropolitan Illarion, said that every five minutes one Christian was dying for his or her faith in some part of the world, specifying that he was talking about such countries as Iraq, Egypt, Pakistan and India. The cleric asked Putin to make the protection of Christians one of the foreign policy directions in future.

Yom Kippur Guide for the Perplexed
Ambassador (ret.) Yoram Ettinger,\Based on Jewish Sages

http://www.theettingerreport.com

1. Yom Kippur’s central theme is the plea for forgiveness from fellow
human-beings, highlighting the most essential attributes of constructive
leadership, healthy relationships and family and national cohesion: humility
(admitting fallibility), faith, soul-searching, thoughtfulness, being
considerate, compassion, accepting responsibility, minimizing personal
hostility, magnanimity. In order to penetrate the heart of fellow
human-beings, the plea for forgiveness must emanate from the heart. Yom
Kippur is not driven by punishment, but by behavioral-enhancement.

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