Obama and Restoring American Prestige — Take One: Here Come the Syrians!
In the Wednesday, 12/24/08 edition of the Washington Post, David Ignatius reported that the Syrians, now confident, are ready to resume peace talks with Israel (A New Partner in Syria?). Bashar Assad suddenly sounds reasonable, implying that it was all Bush’s fault for his bad behavior before. I see it this way:
Wants U.S. Administration Involved in Peace Process — This is code for wanting the U.S. to pressure Israel to make all the concessions. Assad is hopeful Obama will comply.
Wants the U.S. and Syria to Cooperate on Iraq– This is baloney. Syria took in multitudes of Baathists fleeing Iraq after the war, allowed jihadis to pour over the border, and provided comfort and aid to these fighters. Syria at times may have helped on the border, but its goal all along has been to see the U.S. occupation fail. Assad wants to forge a “political vision” with the U.S. on Iraq. How ridiculous: Assad’s regime is itself a Baathist dictatorship, using conflict with Israel as a means to justify its own existence (and for the longest time, its occupation of Lebanon).
“Borders Document” Sent to Israel– Assad says he a document to Israel with his expectations on borders. This so-called overture repeats his father’s demands that the border be drawn to the Kinneret lake in northern Israel. See http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1228728216692&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull. As another non-starter, it’s another attempted land grab by the Syrians, and would place Israel’s water supply in jeopardy. Maybe the Obama administration and the EU should suggest to the Syrians that they should give up land for peace to the Israelis? That would be the day!
Sarting a War in the Middle East & Lebanon – Assad hopes that Obama won’t start “another war anywhere in the world, especially not in the Middle East.” Some hypocrite. He himself indirectly started his own middle east war in 2006 when his Lebanese proxy Hezbollah attacked Israel, killing and seizing its soldiers. Meanwhile, Assad continues to support political instability in Lebanon, involves Syria in assassinations of prominent Lebanese political figures, and rearms Hezbollah (against U.N. resolutions like they really matter).
I hope Obama will not be charmed by all this, and will not use these false “openings” as excuses to pressure Israel into making untenable and unwise concessions. Until the Syrians demonstrate real good intentions, these non-starters should be treated as such.
No related posts.
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
on 
on