Free Republic

Ein el Helwe Palestinian camp, Lebanon: This is one of the questions ricocheting between Palestinians in Syria and Lebanon, posed also by ISIS (Da’ish) operatives, as the hot summer months and plummeting quality of existence raise tensions in the refugee camps and social gatherings. With its resilience, on-the-ground “achievements”, adaptability, global franchising, copy-cat knock-offs, chameleon-like adaptations, combinations and permutations, and slick honing of medium and message, ISIS is offering oppressed and desperate populations in this region both hope and fantasy for escaping their deepening misery. The dream is to escape abject poverty and indignity by any means necessary, and joining...

The 'International Human Shields' movement, founded by a group of activists in Britain and the US, plans to bring to Syria civilians from countries around the globe, who will try to deter US strikes on the country by staking out potential military targets and serving as human shields there. The British Telegraph said that Franklin Lamb, a lawyer recently appointed as the legal adviser for the group, said he had been "inundated" with requests from activists including from Canada, France, Italy, the US, and Britain. The Syrian regime has not yet told the group whether it intends to let it...