for the victory day parade. watch the live coverage on r.t.e. . a declaration of war that's how syrian officials have described the latest israeli air strike a military research center near damascus was pummeled with rockets overnight the arab league has condemned the strike demanding action from the u.n. while the u.k. calls for an end to the arms embargo on the opposition saying peace in the region is now under threat. in bahrain a court has sentenced thirty one protesters to fifteen years in jail for throwing four bombs during the regime riots last year. with a look back at the past seven days top stories and the latest developments this is

the weekly here on. syria says israel has effectively declared war after its planes bombed targets in damascus the second airstrikes in as many days syria's state media says israeli rockets targeted a military research center on the outskirts of the capital video footage an eyewitness account suggests the attacks hit weapons dumps triggering large explosions syria says a number of people were killed and wounded amid widespread destruction the arab league has condemned the strikes and demanded the u.n. security council react release correspondent paula slip has more. tension on the ground is increasing and increasing by the hour the syrian information minister on man hours i will be said after a special cabinet meeting that syria will not accept a breach of its sovereignty all of its security and that all options were on the table syrian officials say that they've turned syrian artillery also to face

towards israel the syrian deputy foreign minister final our next. said the alleged israeli attack on syria is addictive ration of war now make that has said that syria will retaliate against israel in its own time and in its own way meanwhile iran which has a defense agreement with syria says it will respond to alleged israeli airstrikes on sunday morning and it's also urging neighboring countries to stand up to israeli aggression we haven't heard anything so far from the israeli government the israeli military also continues to refuse to either confirm or deny the reports that are detect syria in the early hours of sunday morning israel however has declared the north of this country a no fly zone to civilian flights this is a precaution that's also a way of defusing the situation and for allowing it to be allowing for the defense missile system to be put into place the iron dome is being deployed in the north of

israel it's aimed at protecting northern israeli cities from short range missiles that could be fired from either levanon all syria or both the mayor of haifa which is israel's largest city in the north is also taking steps to potentially increase the level of readiness of the cities citizens meanwhile the israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu held an emergency security cabinet meeting that meeting adjourned without any statements in fact the only statement we've heard from the israeli prime minister was after his weekly cabinet meeting on sunday morning and he did not comment on the strikes the only thing he said was reiterating his commitment to israel security they were earlier that a senior and named israeli official conversion confirmed that tel aviv was responsible for sunday's strikes that would be the third strike inside syria that israel has carried out since january this year. paulus lear there in egypt has condemned the israeli air strikes in syria with the arab league also demanding

action from the un security council the league says that there has been a dangerous violation of arab states sovereignty article two of the united nations charter bans the use of force against the territorial integrity of any state a u.s. white house spokesman meanwhile has said that a bomber feels that israel is justified in its concerns over the threat from hezbollah or he's got a card in washington and boyko in london told us more about the reaction coming from the u.k. and the u.s. . the u.k. foreign secretary has said that this latest israeli air strike is making the case stronger for lifting the e.u. arms embargo on the syrian opposition according to william hague this recent escalation of the conflict shows that there's a real risk that the violence could spread outside of syria and into the wider middle east of course this isn't the first time that the u.k. has called for an end to this e.u.

arms embargo in fact it's become somewhat of a regular occurrence this is just the latest reason that they're citing for providing extra assistance to the syrian opposition and we know that germany has to provide extra weapons to provide weapons to the syrian opposition we also know that yet the united nations have begun reservations about it they say that flooding the region can only create more violence underscores many international and those have been keen to point out that arming the syrian rebels could have some very dangerous consequences for them why do the region and for israel of course as well a lot of people are still very wary of what took place the libya the libyan scenario when weapons flooded out from gadhafi is army and into mali and algeria into neighboring countries there's still a lot of problems to do with that so it's a lot of countries are very fearful about making that mistake again gaia to you

know are there any indicators that the you are about israel's attacks in advance the u.s. and israel according to both governments work very closely in terms of intelligence gathering so it is difficult to believe that washington didn't know anything about israel's plans to blunt damascus the question that is very much unclear at this point is whether the strikes were really about has a lot whether it was an intervention into the civil war in syria the sources in the u.s. government on the officially call for the strikes just as they did. days ago one said they were targeting weapons headed for hezbollah in lebanon the mess because sees it differently they see the strikes as an attempt to boost the morale as they say of the rebels whether or not the strikes were actually intended as an intervention into the syrian civil war they may affect it anyway there is another concern the strikes are based on some secret information and actual so what is heading somewhere you can tell will be of no washington have officially confirmed

anything and many worry that we're stepping into this very gray area worse right against another country can be carried out in absolute secrecy the strikes come days after the u.s. defense secretary said washington is rethinking its position on arming the rebels for the defense secretary did also say he personally has not decided whether he would be wise to provide weapons to the rebels he said the administration is looking at a range of options at the moment as you can see there is nothing definitive in the administration's remarks at this stage but put together the events of this week which now include the israeli strikes may have created a certain momentum and this kind of momentum could actually bolster the forces on the ground and result in more violence in a country where it's already devastating. let's get more reaction now on the recent attacks by israel. from something the university in amman well many is speculating that israel is targeting hezbollah militants in preemptive self-defense indeed

president obama has said israel's actions are justified if that is the case is that israel's main agenda is that its main goal. well i think it has become clear now that what's going on here is an intervention on the behalf of the muslim brothers and al qaida terrorists who are wreaking havoc on syria it's hard to believe that this pertains soley to hizbullah especially that many an israeli analyst has testified that this is an intervention and the ongoing syrian civil war well we cannot look at this development. and seclusion from what's been going on take for example the fact that israel has three to one that men from the free syrian army take for example the declarations made by many as zionist politicians from netanyahu to praise and recent days praise especially as has

emphasized the need to bring down the syrian regime take the fact that there's been pressure from the zionists. to have the u.s. administration intervene directly militarily in syria so we cannot take this development in seclusion from all the context politically as well as militarily which basically serves to help the arm the rebels who are connected through or as lama status on the syria but why would israel do that because if the regime does toppled and you're left with a country full of islamic islamist extremists who are obviously anti israeli that's a very dangerous position for israel to put itself in when it's its direct neighbor . well i can see you're saying that on the basis of that it's all tick that is being spewed daily and the imperialist and zionist media however if you look at

strategic plans that were drawn out over many decades with then they policymaking circles in the zionist entity since second the second world war you will see that a big part of their strategy is to fragment the arab world into mina states and they have done similar things and yugoslavia for example i mean nato has done that and and many parts of the former soviet union the idea a few for example look at the document called the cuban name document that was published in one thousand eight hundred two by the world zionist organization that specified that climb the need to break up syria as well as iraq egypt so than and the rest of the arab states so i think the final target this to have syria broken down and to suffer a minute states that would provide an environment to have all these minute states

fighting each other on such setian or ethnic grounds ok during the time you were the house of origin just briefly though i want to know how serious should be responding to this from your point of view because it said this is a declaration of war just briefly is this a regional conflict that while it's. ok i do not think that syria will engage in the direct military response at this time however. syria might respond in that act live via other means without having itself implicated the directly in the process at the same time keep in mind the fact that syria is is actually has always said over the last two years that those rubbles are being supported by the by this zionist so you have arms money and fact many israeli rockets were caught with their rivals that they tried to fire or were caught and weapons caches so and fucked syria considers itself in

a state of war with israel over the last two years using using other cronies and fire like the syrian free army how about let me just say one last thing here i think the point behind these attacks was. provoke the syrian air force to enter a b. and have the syrian air force intervene that would have been smushed which would have given an advantage to the syrian free army and thus repeating the scenario of libya cause without a cover the syrian army the regular army would be unable to move from one city to the other with impunity like it does not really interesting perspective thank you very much indeed dr you would have a new schwinn this up in a university in amman thank you very much thank you thank you well you might call the research she spoke to me at all and he said any course part of israel's how it's newspaper he believes the airstrike is justified as a preemptive attack to ensure the nation's security. this is part of the israeli

policy which you can describe as pownce but do not announce don't let the syrian regime transfer surface to surface missiles and surface to be so stupid paula but don't brag about it so while the reason no official confirmation you can take it almost as face value when you hear the u.s. side confirm it officially what about the legality of israel bombing syria like this without even a un mandate i mean how do you expect the international community to react to this well the israeli and syrian governments have been playing a fragile ceasefire for the last forty years however next door in lebanon on the lebanese government does not control hezbollah and has well i want to take these arms from syria and positioned within lebanon and while you may

say that flying over a lebanese space is not exactly according to international law and this is nick peeking in and while there are many reasons on other aspects to be critical of israeli policy he does see that this time around he's white balance he's only trying to prevent and preempt. complete the race so i'm sure you talk about the israeli air strike the massive explosions you call this a balanced reaction to unconfirmed reports that the syrian officials are moving surface to air missiles to hezbollah which they are denying at the time you call it balanced ok let me clarify first of all the reason of course and regrettably so a massacre going on in syria has gone on for the last two years with many thousands of people being killed others perhaps in the hundreds of thousands being uprooted and now being refused use across the border and what israelis trying to

prevent. lebanon war this is perhaps a minor price to pay. in order not to pay the bigger prize of the killing and we have our which will be read by another lebanon war. well let's see what you make of these air strikes on syria we always like to get your opinion on the big stories of the day and on our website of the moment r.t. dot com we're asking on our online poll what are the reasons behind this and indeed the implications well so far we can see the majority forty four percent think that israel is carrying out these airstrikes on behalf of western interests thirty three percent believe that this is simply an undeclared war and sixteen percent say this is actually israel sending a message to iran and finally seven percent believe israel is defending itself against those threats from hezbollah militants so that is how you see it at moment dot com good to hear from you simply log on to our home page. well

and you were right to this jim brann says israel won't face any repercussions from the international community due to america's influence in the u.n. security council. any intervention of that kind is is going to make the situation worse as well as being a violate basic violation of international law which clearly israel strike today and the previous ones have been as well but william hague is justifying his favorite method of intervention which is arming the one side in the in the fight on the basis that israel is pursuing its favorite method of intervening which is bombing and it's completely unacceptable syria will be very careful in the west because i think it's probably an israeli provocation anyway it may well be that israel is trying to get syria to retaliate or it's trying to provoke hizbullah into retaliating and remember that israel has a very serious score to settle with

a smaller because twice once in the year two thousand and once in the year two thousand and six hizbullah inflicted a very serious defeat on israel so israel certainly wants to get one or the united states has a veto i think forty four united nations security council was in the concerning israel when they get anywhere near. cramping israel's ability to carry out the strikes that we've seen lately so at the end of the day i'm sure that the united states would simply veto any u.n. security council resolution with teeth and in a way you can say that perhaps some of these voices in the region know that perfectly well we're also closely monitoring developments in the region online and dot com this is the weekly here in r.t. live from moscow to find out why dozens of bahraini protesters got fifteen year jail terms that's after this break.

i. speak your language. programs and documentaries in arabic it's all here on. reporting from the world talks about six of p.r.p. interviews intriguing story for you. to see arabic to find out more visit arabic don't call.

the weekly continues here in a court in bahrain is sentenced thirty one protesters to fifteen years in prison each that all aged between sixteen and thirty four and have been found guilty of carrying out follow bomb attacks during anti-government protests which engulfed the kingdom last year one of the lawyers claims his client was tortured until he gave a false confession the motorcade has been widely criticized for its violent suppression of protests rallies auntie's you see coming off as more. this group of thirty one protesters as you said is aged roughly between sixteen and thirty four so you can imagine for the sixteen year olds this is an incredibly hefty sentence they all come from secure island in the northwest part of the country which has

been the hotbed of protests that have rocked early twenty and levon now these protesters have been sentenced on a range of charges including for example setting a car on a flyer protesting possession of petrol bombs and also attempted murder this is according to the lawyers but the protesters deny these charges they say that they're innocent and they in fact claim that they were coerced into confessing in order to get these charges now the background to all of this is these escalating protests that we've seen in bahrain that as i mentioned began in two thousand and eleven basically where you have is ongoing unrest with the majority of shiites in the country demonstrating and demanding a greater voice in the political system that has been ruled by the sunni monarchy ruled in many ways with an iron fist these protesters allege and so what began as peaceful gatherings people taking to the streets to protest has really transformed into what we've seen in many cases brutal crackdowns by the police with tear gas being used mass arrests of protesters in fact one of the most best known cases of

people when the regime essentially cracking down on some of the protesters was the case of the deal where job he was actually interviewed here on our t.v. by giuliano song and in august twenty twelve he was actually sentenced to three years in jail for participating in one of these protests so a lot of human rights activists say that this is and i'm tenable situation you that these these people are really stepping out to demand democracy but they've really been met with an iron fist so of course continue to washy how this situation develops but it's quite possible that the sentence sentencing of these thirty one protesters could spark fresh rest in that country. straight to our guest eric draitser who's a geo political analyst from new york. fifteen years in prison erica is that a fair sentence to think well of course it's not fair but it's certainly par for the course with a monarchy such as you have in bahrain we should remember that the sentences that

have been handed down are not simply for these for the protestors or for organizing or for even for the crimes that they say that these individuals had committed that sentence is designed as a scare tactic against all other democracy protesters in bahrain it's a way for the for the ruling family for the al khalifa family to ensure their own dominance within the country by crushing dissent in doing so and this is perhaps the most important point doing so with the tacit approval of the united states and the proxies of the united states in the region that sponsor bahrain such as qatar and saudi arabia so when we're talking about this decision handed down against the protesters should also keep in mind incredibly powerful geo political dimension to this issue and they postponed the sentencing and then assumes it will turn its attention elsewhere off to the the formula one race left they would jailed what you make of the talking well again i mean the timing is for political reasons but again

this is the bahraini ruling establishment essentially trying to save face in the public eye just as you mentioned this was an issue and then it wasn't an issue when the eyes of the world were looking at bahrain soon as they turned away it becomes the issue again and the reason i think this is perhaps what people want to know that the lifo family just like the guitar or the south or the house of saud in saudi arabia they understand that they're engaged in an existential struggle for their very survival they realize that the democratic movements in other countries in the region could very quickly. translate into their own country so for those countries such as rain which has chastised syria for being so called up. democratic they are the champions of nondemocratic institutions of torture of killing of extrajudicial killing and all of the rest of these things happening in bahrain that

i think is the real scandal now the youngest child is just sixteen and the oldest is thirty four is uprising really just made up of the country's youth is it representative of the general feeling of the population do you think i think it definitely is representative of the general feeling remember that the people of bahrain have been ruled by one single family of a minority in the country so if you're talking about the vast majority of that country having lived in a state of disenfranchisement for their entire lives and they see and remember that bahrain was in many ways the the kernel at the very beginning of the arab spring and the struggle that has continued in bahrain since that early part of two thousand and eleven gets no attention in the western media primarily because as i and many people listening already know bahrain is a client of saudi arabia which is a client of the united states bahrain houses the u.s. fifth fleet bahrain is central to the u.s.

imperial plans for the region and for that reason the democracy upsurge in bahrain has been marginalized while the fraudulent uprising in syria has been glorified this illustrates the hypocrisy of the united states and the hypocrisy of its policy in the region just briefly funny when they question these protests now all we see more of an uprising and if so how will the bahraini authorities deal with it just how far will they go what are you going to see there in the country next just briefly i think that i think that the authorities in bahrain it's impossible to say because as i mentioned they recognize correctly so that they are in an existential struggle for their very survival the era of futile monarchy is over this is now the twenty first century the time for democracy these protesters are not going anywhere . anywhere and the united states backers are also not going anywhere so the situation will continue and the question is will democracy triumph over imperialism eric draitser geo political analyst from new york thank you very much indeed for

your thoughts on this thank you. now for some other news making headlines at this hour police and hard line islamists of clashed in bangladesh after protesters blocked roads and cut off the capital dhaka thousands of security forces fired rubber bullets and tear gas and demonstrators as they call for strict blasphemy laws they also demanded death for atheist bloggers who caused the outcry earlier this year. thirty five people have been killed and at least thirty seriously injured when a funeral procession degenerated into sectarian violence in nigeria christians and muslims armed with guns and machetes clashed after alleged provocations following christian chanting during the burial of a local chief scores of houses were burned to the ground and the term has been put on a round the clock curfew since march sectarian violence has already claimed the lives of one hundred people in the country. that brings up today for the moment when we come back artie explores the lives of syrian refugees seeking asylum here in russia

that saw special report after the break i'll be back with more news for you with the team in about thirty five minutes from now. famous american political figure ron paul has decided to create his own liberty oriented home schooling curriculum at ron paul curriculum to give parents not turn it up to standard public education you know when i was a kid homeschooling was only for like the kids of wacko's and cultus if you met someone who was homeschooled you always look at them with some sort of suspicion like. but those parents i mean who would home school their kids well let's look at it this way who would grow their own food when american supermarkets are stocked with pure healthy and natural food the problem is that food in stores is now loaded

up with all sorts of mystery chemicals and g m o's and it makes perfect sense that nowadays people are in droves starting to grow their own food and this logic applies to education too when public education becomes so dismal it is perfectly logical and reasonable to try to educate your kids yourself the no child left behind program did a fine job of making the american education system lower the bar down to the very basement of the lowest common denominator i mean if you think there should be more in a high school graduates had besides reading writing and arithmetic that homeschooling might be for you as art sports and music and science programs all across the nation to the lack of funding is ron paul's libertarian curriculum what's best for your kids i can't say but it's definitely worth taking a look at other alternatives given the d. minus quality of public education holidays but that's just my opinion.

i am from. the war in syria i like to. just i can go to see my fans and. my name is. i came here because i want for my children to live in. and to be killed russian citizens. and brought him ones are. coming to russia. here because my all and. my name is there not to come back to the lovely country.