Fresh off creeping rapprochement with the US – Obama just reinstated our ambassador and State has dropped their travel advisory – Syria wants you to know that they’re ready to return to the Western fold. Or to light up the Middle East in the process of completing a decade-old genocidal war against the Middle East’s sole, beleaguered democracy. But definitely one of the two:
Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem recently told Israelis that “you know that war at this time will reach your cities.” The statement bolsters the recognition that the Syrian strategy in a future war will be based on targeting population centers in Israel. It seems that after the enemy’s attempts to act through conventional military means and terrorism failed, it tried to locate Israel’s weak point. Damascus sees our cities as a weak point. The Syrian minister’s comments show the extent to which Damascus has adopted a terrorist modus operandi that is no different from that of Hezbollah or Hamas.
It must be nice to have the freedom to explicitly threaten the other side’s civilians. Israel, of course, focuses exclusively on military targets. Which isn’t something they should be rewarded for – it’s what decent countries do – but the contrast is stark. Not only does the Israeli political echelon refrain from threatening war crimes, but the IDF really does goes out of its way to limit civilian casualties. And yet for some reason, over the last year, Syria has grown closer to America while US/Israeli relations are at historic lows. Strange, that.
Syria’s also skirting their NPT obligations and refusing the IAEA access to their bombed nuclear site. Israel haters will point out that the Jewish State isn’t even a member of the NPT, so Syria is more in line with global norms than is the Jewish State. Then someone will remind them that Israel’s entire concern is that international law is politicized, and that Israel’s Arab enemies don’t live up to their treaty obligations. So this spectacle crystallizes exactly why Israel refuses to sign ostensibly balanced treaties that in practice allow totalitarian regimes to cheat with impunity. Then the Israel haters will scream about how it’s not right to accuse them of antisemitism and shoot off an email to Andrew Sullivan.
Rational debate.
References and related after the jump…
References:
* U.S. reaches out to Syria after 5-year rift [Wash Times]
* US lifts travel warning for Syria [YNet]
* Syria is no different from Hamas or Hezbollah [Ha'aretz]
* Hamas Now Doing Everything Humanly Possible To Generate Gaza Civilian Casualties [MR]
* It’s Official: Obama Policy Triggers “Most Tense Encounter” In Years Between US And Israel (Plus: Can You Guess MR’s Blind Item?) [MR]
* Syria dismisses IAEA call for more access to nuclear sites [Ha'aretz]
Related Mere Rhetoric Categories:
* Syria
* Engagement
* Israel
