A regime that has been murdering its own people in the tens of thousands and
utterly destroying Syrian towns and villages in order to keep a specific
family or sect in power doesn't deserve our sympathy or solidarity. Even in
the best possible circumstances, this regime is not less evil than Israel.
We condemn the Israeli bombing, but the Assad regime isn't blameless
07-05-2013,07:53
http://www.qassam.ps/opinion-6966-We_condemn_the_Israeli_bombing_but_the_Assad_regime_isnt_blameless.html
Official website of Ezzedeen Al-Qassam Brigades - the armed branch of Hamas
[Khalid Amayreh is a journalist]
By Khalid Amayreh - A few days ago, Israeli warplanes bombed certain
military targets in the Syrian capital, Damascus. Western intelligence
sources said the targets were a convey of weapons, including missiles,
destined for the Lebanese Shiite militia, Hizbullah. The Syrian government
said a research center and two other unspecific targets were hit by
air-to-ground missiles fired by Israeli war planes, apparently from the
Lebanese airspace.
As Arabs and Muslims, we unhesitatingly condemn the blatant and unprovoked
bombing. Israel, after all, remains and will always be Islam's number-1
enemy, irrespective of the tribulations now taking place in much of the Arab
world.
This is not the first time Israel attacks Syria. Israeli war planes flew
over the presidential palace of Bashar el-Assad a few years ago without
being intercepted. Even anti-aircraft defenses were not operated to repulse
the hostile warplanes.
Moreover, Israeli warplanes recently hit several "sensitive targets" in
Syria. As usual, the reactions of the Syrian regime was confined to the
rhetorical sphere, with regime's spokespersons vowing to hit back if the
Zionist state did it again.
None the less it is highly unlikely that the Assad regime will react in any
pro-active manner even if Israel repeats the bombing so many times over. The
regime is simply too cowardly and too treacherous to confront Israel.
In the final analysis, the Assad regime's ultimate strategy is to keep the
Assad dynasty in power regardless of all other considerations. Needless to
say, attacking Israel, as part of Syria's right to self-defense, could speed
up the process of the Assad regime's demise and ultimate downfall. The
regime's survival is more important than Syria's honor and survival. Doesn't
the virtual destruction of Syria by the regime and its sectarian allies
testify to this fact?
To be sure, Syria is not too week to defend itself, but it is abundantly
clear that the Alawite minority regime is too cowardly to stand up to
Israeli aggression. Besides, self-defense is not only a matter of military
strength, it is also a matter of national honor and dignity, something the
Assad regime obviously doesn't possess.
The truth of the matter is that no state or military organization is too
week to deter enemies and even retaliate when attacked, Take for example
Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic liberation movement. Although there is no
semblance of a symmetry of power between Israel and Hamas, the latter has
always managed to hit back at Israel whenever attacked in the Gaza Strip.
Last year, Hamas and other Palestinian organizations, whose military
capabilities don't equal a fraction of the capabilities of the Assad regime,
showered Israeli towns and settlements, including Tel Aviv and Haifa, with
missiles, forcing millions of Israelis to go underground.
In the beginning of the second Intifada, the Israeli occupation army
murdered the head of the popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Abu
Ali Mustafa, and while in his Ramallah office. A few months later, the group
liquidated the racist Israeli official and cabinet minister Rahbaam Zeevi,
who advocated the expulsion of Palestinians from their homeland.
So, the question that begs itself is why is it that a small resistance group
can hit back when attacked by Israel whereas a huge military force such as
the army of Bashar Assad is shockingly powerless to defend Syria's national
honor?
The Syrian army is officially named "Humatudiyar" or "the protectors of the
homeland." However, in practice, the Syrian army is political in nature and
its ultimate mission is to keep the sectarian regime in power at any price
and under all circumstances.
Indeed, if the Syrian army, tightly controlled by the esoteric Alawite cult,
were to use only 10% of the military resources used in slaughtering its own
people, it would conceivably deter Israeli attacks and provocations.
So, where are the regime's warplanes that rain death and fire on Syrian
neighborhoods in Damascus, Halab and Homs around the clock? Where are the
regime's Shabbihas (butchers and thugs) who routinely raid neighboring Sunni
villages where they slaughter en mass, women and children in order to
"ethnically cleanse" these villages for a future break-away Alawite state
which would be at Israel's and Iran's beck and call? Needless to say, such a
state-let would be another Israel in the Arab world? Indeed, where is all
the rhetoric about resistance, anti-Zionism and anti-imperialism that we
kept hearing rather ad nauseam for the past 50 years?
A regime that has been murdering its own people in the tens of thousands and
utterly destroying Syrian towns and villages in order to keep a specific
family or sect in power doesn't deserve our sympathy or solidarity. Even in
the best possible circumstances, this regime is not less evil than Israel.
The nefarious regime claims that it is being targeted by Israel for its
resistance to Zionism and imperialism. But since when was resistance to
Zionism and imperialism carried out by dismembering Syrian children by
hatchets and axes at the hands of Alawite thugs and cutthroats working in
the service of the regime?
Since when was raping Syrian women and school girls a form of resistance to
Zionism and American imperialism?
There is no doubt that the crimes committed by Israel against Syria don't
equal a small fraction of the genocidal crimes committed by the Syrian
regime against its own people. It is sad and lamentable that we have reached
a point where we have to compare and contrast Israeli crimes and the Syrian
regime's crimes against its own people, but truth must be told however
unpalatable it may be.
In fact, the satanic sectarian tyranny of the Bashar Assad regime is far
more dangerous for the Syrian people than Israel. Just consider the fact
that in two years of repression of the Syrian revolution, more than a
hundred thousand Syrians, mostly innocent civilians, have been killed and
over half a million injured at the hands of Assad's thugs. This is not to
mention the estimated 8 million refugees forced out of their homes by the
unrelenting violence and terror.
The Syrian people can not and will not coexist with this evil regime. It
must go (and it will go), irrespective of the price. One can't live with a
venomous treacherous snake in one's chamber.
A few days ago, Israeli warplanes bombed certain military targets in the
Syrian capital, Damascus. Western intelligence sources said the targets were
a convey of weapons, including missiles, destined for the Lebanese Shiite
militia, Hizbullah. The Syrian government said a research center and two
other unspecific targets were hit by air-to-ground missiles fired by Israeli
war planes, apparently from the Lebanese airspace.
As Arabs and Muslims, we unhesitatingly condemn the blatant and unprovoked
bombing. Israel, after all, remains and will always be Islam's number-1
enemy, irrespective of the tribulations now taking place in much of the Arab
world.
This is not the first time Israel attacks Syria. Israeli war planes flew
over the presidential palace of Bashar el-Assad a few years ago without
being intercepted. Even anti-aircraft defenses were not operated to repulse
the hostile warplanes.
Moreover, Israeli warplanes recently hit several "sensitive targets" in
Syria. As usual, the reactions of the Syrian regime was confined to the
rhetorical sphere, with regime's spokespersons vowing to hit back if the
Zionist state did it again.
None the less it is highly unlikely that the Assad regime will react in any
pro-active manner even if Israel repeats the bombing so many times over. The
regime is simply too cowardly and too treacherous to confront Israel.
In the final analysis, the Assad regime's ultimate strategy is to keep the
Assad dynasty in power regardless of all other considerations. Needless to
say, attacking Israel, as part of Syria's right to self-defense, could speed
up the process of the Assad regime's demise and ultimate downfall. The
regime's survival is more important than Syria's honor and survival. Doesn't
the virtual destruction of Syria by the regime and its sectarian allies
testify to this fact?
To be sure, Syria is not too week to defend itself, but it is abundantly
clear that the Alawite minority regime is too cowardly to stand up to
Israeli aggression. Besides, self-defense is not only a matter of military
strength, it is also a matter of national honor and dignity, something the
Assad regime obviously doesn't possess.
The truth of the matter is that no state or military organization is too
week to deter enemies and even retaliate when attacked, Take for example
Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic liberation movement. Although there is no
semblance of a symmetry of power between Israel and Hamas, the latter has
always managed to hit back at Israel whenever attacked in the Gaza Strip.
Last year, Hamas and other Palestinian organizations, whose military
capabilities don't equal a fraction of the capabilities of the Assad regime,
showered Israeli towns and settlements, including Tel Aviv and Haifa, with
missiles, forcing millions of Israelis to go underground.
In the beginning of the second Intifada, the Israeli occupation army
murdered the head of the popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Abu
Ali Mustafa, and while in his Ramallah office. A few months later, the group
liquidated the racist Israeli official and cabinet minister Rahbaam Zeevi,
who advocated the expulsion of Palestinians from their homeland.
So, the question that begs itself is why is it that a small resistance group
can hit back when attacked by Israel whereas a huge military force such as
the army of Bashar Assad is shockingly powerless to defend Syria's national
honor?
The Syrian army is officially named "Humatudiyar" or "the protectors of the
homeland." However, in practice, the Syrian army is political in nature and
its ultimate mission is to keep the sectarian regime in power at any price
and under all circumstances.
Indeed, if the Syrian army, tightly controlled by the esoteric Alawite cult,
were to use only 10% of the military resources used in slaughtering its own
people, it would conceivably deter Israeli attacks and provocations.
So, where are the regime's warplanes that rain death and fire on Syrian
neighborhoods in Damascus, Halab and Homs around the clock? Where are the
regime's Shabbihas (butchers and thugs) who routinely raid neighboring Sunni
villages where they slaughter en mass, women and children in order to
"ethnically cleanse" these villages for a future break-away Alawite state
which would be at Israel's and Iran's beck and call? Needless to say, such a
state-let would be another Israel in the Arab world? Indeed, where is all
the rhetoric about resistance, anti-Zionism and anti-imperialism that we
kept hearing rather ad nauseam for the past 50 years?
A regime that has been murdering its own people in the tens of thousands and
utterly destroying Syrian towns and villages in order to keep a specific
family or sect in power doesn't deserve our sympathy or solidarity. Even in
the best possible circumstances, this regime is not less evil than Israel.
The nefarious regime claims that it is being targeted by Israel for its
resistance to Zionism and imperialism. But since when was resistance to
Zionism and imperialism carried out by dismembering Syrian children by
hatchets and axes at the hands of Alawite thugs and cutthroats working in
the service of the regime?
Since when was raping Syrian women and school girls a form of resistance to
Zionism and American imperialism?
There is no doubt that the crimes committed by Israel against Syria don't
equal a small fraction of the genocidal crimes committed by the Syrian
regime against its own people. It is sad and lamentable that we have reached
a point where we have to compare and contrast Israeli crimes and the Syrian
regime's crimes against its own people, but truth must be told however
unpalatable it may be.
In fact, the satanic sectarian tyranny of the Bashar Assad regime is far
more dangerous for the Syrian people than Israel. Just consider the fact
that in two years of repression of the Syrian revolution, more than a
hundred thousand Syrians, mostly innocent civilians, have been killed and
over half a million injured at the hands of Assad's thugs. This is not to
mention the estimated 8 million refugees forced out of their homes by the
unrelenting violence and terror.
The Syrian people can not and will not coexist with this evil regime. It
must go (and it will go), irrespective of the price. One can't live with a
venomous treacherous snake in one's chamber.
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