Although I did spend some time writing about Libya, this blog has been mostly silent about Syria. I apologize for being remiss on that and from not condemning earlier the sad Assad regime. But Syria is a little bit different because to tribal politics we must add religious diatribe as the regime is basically a union of religious minorities that impose their rule on the Sunni majority. And that spells quite another kind of trouble than what we saw in Tunisia, and Libya....
Thus, not being as knowledgeable on Syria, and not having observed the type of close association between Chavez and Assad as we saw with Ahmadnejerk and the butcher of Tripoli, there was less incentive, and time, to ponder on Syria, though in many respects it is uglier than in Lybia.
But there comes a time when we must write down our outrage, the more so when we read stuff like:
- the business creeps that rule over Syria and that are unambiguously declaring that they will keep their ill acquired fortune at the price of any suffering against the people. They go as far as threatening the stability of Israel, implying that if it were not for them Israel would have been swept of something. Yes, the same people who spend fortunes in anti Israel propaganda to sustain their rule.
- that actually there is still a debate, although in death throes, about Syria occupying a seat in the UN human rights commission. I mean, there are people that because of diplomatic protocols still discuss such a preposterous thing?
You know something, after reading these two NYT articles, I am 100% on the side of the Syrian Sunnis. The Christians and Alawites that bound together for "business" had it coming.... At this point Israel is not going to be worse off whichever side wins, and in fact, having a few kind words for the Sunnis of Syria might be a good thing to do for Israel, because they already know that people like Makhlouf will sell Israel short at the first opportunity.
And of course, we must also underline that the privileged liaison of Chavez with the Assad clan was as usual yet another liaison with a thuggy business like practice group at the expenses of "el pueblo" or whatever you call the pauperized Sunni majority of Syria.
It was a sick world that allowed such folks to prosper for so long.