Israel Sides with Rebels

During April, the Syrian government launched attacks to regain territory in rebel hands. This counter-offensive, which included heavy bombardment and air strikes, met with some success, according to reports last week. The rebels re-iterated their call for heavier weapons and attacks on the airfields. The chemical weapons ruse is a red herring, but it allowed Obama and his aides to spout some rhetoric while they went into meetings about how to help out the rebels without directly helping them. The usual Senate suspects piped up calling for joining the war. Obama made clear a degree of reluctance directly to engage, but he could do this because he had Israel available to bomb the airfields. They, of course, had their own cover story prepared, which was that they were bombing arms meant for Hezbollah.

Follow the facts, not the cover stories. The U.S. and Israel both prefer that the current Syrian government fall. They have no ready replacement for it. There is no identifiable replacement. There is only a collection of rebel forces that includes forces using extreme and terrorist methods and that includes forces that want a religious-political system of government to be installed. U.S. leaders, inclusive of Israel’s leaders, either think they can control subsequent events if Assad falls or else think that continual instability in Syria is in the empire’s interest.

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10:56 am on May 5, 2013