Daily Times Editorial Feb 2, 2013

Israeli aggression on Syria Israel’s attack on Syria has ratcheted up tensions in the Levant and threatens the outbreak of war. The Israelis claim their jets struck a convoy of weapons, particularly SAM-7 missiles, for Hezbollah in Lebanon, which could erode Israel’s vaunted air superiority. Syria on the other hand has said the attack was on a military research centre that was destroyed. Reports speak of possibly both events having taken place, with the Syrian opposition claiming it attacked the Jamraya military site. Whatever the truth of these claims and counter-claims, the fact remains that whichever target the Israelis struck, they are guilty of a blatant act of aggression, something Israel’s track record proves they have never shrunk from. Clearly, the Israelis are not only trying to take advantage of Syria’s current difficulties, their actions and statements, as those of the Syrian opposition, have clearly established the truth of Bashar al-Assad’s claim that the agenda of the opposition and Israel are the same. Assad has been saying since the uprising against the Ba’ath Party regime began that the opposition to his rule is a foreign-backed, Islamist terrorist movement. Objective observers will be persuaded now perhaps that there is weight in Assad’s observation. While condemnations of the Israeli raid have come from Hezbollah, Russia and Iran, Pakistan has maintained a ‘diplomatic’ silence. This is despite the fact that Pakistan currently chairs the UN Security Council, which has received a formal complaint from Syria regarding the Israeli aggression. Iran’s leader Ayatollah Khamenei has reiterated his solidarity with Syria by saying any attack on that country is an attack on Iran. Our silence is therefore all the more shameful. Israel remains a rogue state unrestrained by international law because of its blind support, right or wrong, from the US-led western countries. Once again, Israel is provoking tension and war in the Middle East. It is pertinent to remind ourselves that this kind of action in Syria is by no means the first by Israel. In 2007 it struck a suspected Syrian nuclear facility, and in 1981 destroyed Iraq’s Osirak reactor. Syria is being attacked from within by the Islamist-oriented opposition (including elements allied with al Qaeda, ironically) and without by Israel backed by the west. The reasons for this unwanted attention are not hard to understand. Syria has been the most consistent member of the resistance front against Israel in the Arab world. Even when the Palestinians attempted to make peace with Israel, a project that is virtually dead in the water by now, Syria led a Rejectionist Front of Arab countries that had not sold out to Israel and the west, along with Palestinian groups that dissented from the ‘peace’ thrust. If Syria therefore has proved a canker in the side of western capitals and Tel Aviv, recall the fate of Gaddafi who in his later years attempted to normalise relations with the west, with which he had been at loggerheads for decades. That initiative did not spare him or his regime. The only difference between him and Assad is that the latter has been more consistent, even it meant being deprived of Syrian territory in the Golan Heights captured by Israel in the 1967 war. Once the west had ‘conquered’ Libya, they turned their grubby paws towards Syria, relying on what was by now established practice of backing armed opposition groups, irrespective of their credentials or leanings, which, to repeat, include al Qaeda affiliated groups in both Libya and Syria. If anyone is under the illusion that the Israeli raid is a one-off affair, they need to think again. The orchestrated campaign on the issue of alleged chemical weapons Syria is developing and may deploy against its opposition may well be a prelude to, and preparing the ground for, more attacks on Syria, which would not only establish the nexus between the opposition and Israel and the west, it may also threaten the outbreak of war once again in the Middle East. The Syrian warning that it may spring a “surprise” response to the Israeli blatant aggression should not be taken lightly. Will Pakistan use its current rotating presidentship of the UN Security Council to come to the aid and succour of Syria, or will it remain shamefully supine and kow towing to the west?