Homs under attack
Photo: AFP/Youtube
Wounded Syrian civilians
Israel, help the Syrians
Op-ed: Jewish state, Free World should assist Syria rebels, but do so quietly and wisely
Israel and the whole Free World should be assisting the freedom fighters currently liberating Syria,
for the simple reason that these people are fighting in order to bring an end to one of the last dark regimes left in our world, outside of Africa and North Korea.
Bashar Assad, a murderer and the son of a murderer, is conducting himself like the leader of a minority controlling a Muslim state for long years under unbearable pressure. As his father did before him, Assad Junior responds to any threat on Syria’s Alawite hegemony by resorting to the only way he knows: Directing live fire at protestors.
Jewish State
Yigal Walt
Op-ed: Israel’s primetime TV lineup offers some insights into treatment of local Arabs
Assad will never change, and I estimate that he will never leave Syria out of his own accord. The moment he realizes that the campaign against him has been decided, he may take the whole country with him down the drain, and possibly the Middle East as well; for example, by firing missiles at Israel.
The issue of who backs the rebels at this time – Qatar, Saudi Arabia or the United States – is an open question for now. One of these days, this matter will also be clarified. Yet what’s important at this time is to help the freedom fighters in their battle to eradicate Assad and his regime.
Grim history
The history of international interventions in Mideastern conflicts is quite grim. In order to do it well, one must hide the assistance and refrain from providing Assad and his men with weapons they could use in the war. It would be enough for one American rifle to be seized for Assad to present the entire move as a “fight initiated by Western imperialism” or some other kind of nonsense that characterizes defeated Arab rhetoric.
Yet in order to truly help the Syrian people, one must also think about the day after Assad and his regime are gone. Tunisia is a good example of a state that survived the revolution and appears to be taking the path of a genuine democracy. However, Egypt and Libya are still facing terrible chaos.
Syria, which still belongs to President George W. Bush’s “axis of evil,” is a particularly volatile state, and in order to neutralize this landmine and stay alive, one would need particularly well-honed political expertise.
So should we offer Syria’s rebels our help? Yes. But we should do so quietly, wisely, and behind the scenes. Any mistake made here would extend the terrible suffering of the Syrian people and claim the lives of innocents.
