Tag: Syria

Slouching Towards Jerusalem

Map of the Golan Heights
Map of the Golan Heights

The Obama Administration may have convinced itself that an Iranian military presence in the Syrian Golan Heights is no big deal and might even represent a positive development, one that might eventually force both Iran and Israel to reconsider the nature of their antagonistic relationship. A simple and rational cost-benefit analysis, or so the thinking seems to go in this regard, should in time encourage both sides to agree on some kind of détente, one that could pave the way for formal recognition, and even, cooperation in the not-so-distant future.

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Middle East Institute hosts “Syria – A Fire Within”

The Middle East Institute hosted on November 12, 2014, a screening of the documentary “Syria – A Fire Within.” The event was well-attended and featured a discussion with me afterwards. The podcast can be founded here.

ISIS Inc.: US official reveals how terror network makes its millions

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The more we learn about ISIS the more similar it gets to the Assad regime from the belief in its divine right to rule to the way it treats its opponents, including torture, kidnapping, beheading and stoning, and the way its makes money. Terrorists in Syria come in different guises, but their actions betray them all, at least to those of us who are unwilling to be willingly blind. Terror invites terror. You can ignore one set of atrocities, you endorse all.

An End to Our War

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The bulk of the slaughter and devastation in Syria is being wrought by the Assad regime, not ISIS or the rebels. Yet, there are still those who would prescribe cooperation with the Assad regime as the lesser of all evils. But rewarding killers does not end the suffering, rather, such move a move buys a mere reprieve as all sides prepare for another more bloody and devastating round.

I don’t know how many would-be or wannabe Einsteins and Mozarts died in Syria as a result of the war Assad unleashed, but I do know that there were surely many carpenters, grocers, farmers, bakers, tailors, soldiers, doctors and engineers, and that each and every one of them, by virtue of their humanity alone, was entitled to live in dignity. That knowledge suffices for me to want an end to this war, an end that brings with it the possibility of a dignified existence, not reward the killers.