Still bodies of babies, women and children, murdered by the chlorine gas – these are the recent victory pictures that Bashar Assad wants us to remember. Assad triumphed the Syrian people, he triumphed Syria and the human spirit. Five years ago, the butcher from Damascus has slaughtered more than one thousand Syrian civilians in Eastern Ghouta and crossed the red line posed by President Obama. However, he was saved from a military blow thanks to his accomplice, President Putin, which reached an agreement with Obama to disarm the Syrian regime from chemical weapon. Obama already completed his two presidential terms and the British Cameron resigned from his post, but Assad, Khamenei and Putin are here to stay, together with the poisonous gas which kill the poor who did not manage to find a haven.

These are the hands of Assad that kill and poison the Syrian people, but the responsibility lies upon the Turkish-Iranian-Russian Trinity whose leaders met a couple of days ago in Ankara to divide the booty. They agreed to divide Syria and leave Assad in power despite his responsibility for the destruction of the state and to the flee of millions of Syrians, hereby providing him the political legitimacy to annihilate the people of Douma.

Some people wonder why Assad used the gas against helpless men and women while Douma is besieged and ISIS started negotiating on leaving the town and giving it to the Russians. The answer is quite simple: Assad wanted to enforce himself on his allies. Whereas Russian wanted to skip Assad in the negotiations, whereas the Trinity wanted to ignore him in discussing the solution, his reply was immediate: Douma would have to surrender to Assad and the most practical way to accomplish this task would be using the chlorine gas.

The other half of the answer to this question is simple too. Since using a chemical weaponry against the people of Eastern Ghouta five years ago, Assad found out that there are no more red lines. The Russian cover on the one hand, and the unwillingness of the US and its allies to act decisively to stop the atrocities on the other hand, enabled him to do whatever he pleased, without paying the price for his crimes. Thus, Assad, Putin and Erdogan, along any despicable rule across the globe, knew that all means are legitimate to retain their rule: murder, destruction, exiling people and the use of chemical weapon were proved to be efficient, hereby becoming the winning cards who have saved the evil regime.

What is going in Syria serves as a pretext at the hands of Israel’s government following the fact that the international community condemned Israel for killing Palestinian demonstrators across the border between Israel and Gaza. Israel’s Defense Minister, Avigdor Lieberman, accuses the world of hypocrisy as the latter accuses Israel but refrains from accusing Russia and the Syrian regime. Moreover, Lieberman draws a comparison between the “humanitarian” approach of the Israeli occupation and the cruelty of the Arab regimes, boasting in Israel’s democracy vis-à-vis the tyrannies in the neighboring countries.

The truth is that Lieberman, like his right-wing government, is indifferent to the atrocities in Syria, although he has influence over determining the fate of Syria and its regime through his tight coordination with the Russians. Israel’s refusal to join the US and the EU in condemning Russia for its use in gas against the Russian spy on British soil, is not less hypocritic than the way other countries are conducting. Assad’s cruelty against the Syrians doesn’t justify the cruelty of Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian people as well as the fact that for fifty years Israel is busy in violating the political and civil rights of the Palestinians.

The Daam party condemns the Syrian regime and its allies and call upon the people of conscience, along with the friends of the Palestinian people, who support its rights and freedom, to endorse the Syrian people and its noble revolution against the evil regime of Assad. Whoever refuses to resist the despot, whoever justifies regime’s war crimes in the name of the struggle against Zionism and imperialism, loses the moral, political and legal basis to condemn Israel which is oppressing the Palestinian people. The fate of the Palestinians is bound with the fate of the Arab people, first and foremost the Syrian people. As long as the Arab people will be subordinated to tyrannical regimes – in Egypt, Syria, Jordan or Iraq – the Palestinian people will continue to be occupied. The collapse of Israel’s occupation depends on the collapse of the despotic Arab regimes, first and foremost the Syrian one.

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At the outbreak of the revolution in Syria two years ago, the Israeli government announced that events there were none of its business and it would not interfere. Forty years of quiet on the Golan Heights had led Israel to prefer Assad over any conceivable replacement. Now, however, when the rebels rule wide areas, when the Syrian army is falling apart, and when the regime’s survival is in the balance, Israeli policy appears to have shifted from passivity to active intervention.

The pretext is to prevent the transport of Iranian arms through Syria to the Hezbollah, but the real purpose of the policy change is to influence the future of Syria in case Assad falls, as Israel thinks he will; Israel wants to push a future Syria away from its alliance with Iran. The weakness of Assad’s regime, especially its loss of control over areas bordering Turkey, Iraq, and Lebanon, has created a new strategic situation. “The free Syrian army” has established a territorial base on which it can erect an alternative administration. This development has led Hezbollah to enter the fray, and that, in turn, has opened the chink through which Israel could worm its way in.

Hezbollah’s involvement in Syria began in secret, with Nasrallah denying it absolutely. But the battles in the city of al-Quseir near Homs, and the ethnic cleansing of the Sunni villages by Hezbollah, have exposed his interference. Hezbollah has lost all its political capital in the Arab world. Indeed, the “guru” of the Muslim Brotherhood, Sheikh Yussef Kardawi, has gone so far as to damn Nasrallah and call for American intervention. Such a moment, with Assad in free fall and Nasrallah in disgrace, offers Israel a golden opportunity to demonstrate its power and thus ensure deterrence.

Israeli intervention

Israel makes a simple claim: We aren’t attacking the Syrian regime—we’ve gotten along fine with Assad and appreciate the quiet he’s maintained on the Golan. Our problem is with the Hezbollah and the arms from Iran, which threaten our security. However, this claim suffers from several flaws: First, the arms warehouse that Israel blew up was beside Assad’s palace; the fireworks panicked people in Damascus and severely harmed what little is left of Assad’s prestige. Second, what sense does it make to strike in the heart of Damascus—rather than simply wait for Assad’s fall, an event that in any case will cut off Hezbollah’s military lifeline? Instead, Israel chooses the very approach which the US and Europe avoided for fear of chaos.

Assad’s initial reaction has been to preserve the calm with Israel. There were several hours of tension, and then, as a sign that no reprisal was expected, Israeli PM Netanyahu boarded a plane for China. Al-Hayat reports that before the flight he spoke with Russia’s Putin, assuring him that the target was Hezbollah and not Assad. Putin passed the message to Assad, and apparently he also repeated his demand on Hezbollah that it not interfere in Syria (a demand made earlier by his Deputy Foreign Minister in a face-to-face meeting with Nasrallah). Israel emerged unscathed, but with hunger comes appetite, and Assad’s present restraint is no guarantee as to what the response will be the next time.

America on the Defensive

The bombing of Damascus occurred a few days before the visit of the American Secretary of State John Kerry in Moscow. After an Israeli intelligence officer revealed that Assad had used chemical weapons, crossing the red line set by President Obama, the White House went on the defensive. Obama acknowledged that such weapons had indeed been used but he claimed a lack of definitive evidence concerning the culprit; in addition, he ruled out putting American soldiers on Syrian soil. To all who demand US military intervention in Syria, above all to Senator John McCain, Obama has always replied that this would be dangerous and complicated.

Kerry’s visit became crucial. On top of 70,000 killed and four million refugees, Hezbollah and Israel have now taken Syria as their battleground. After meeting Putin and holding nighttime discussions with Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov, Kerry released an innocuous statement that leaves the situation as is: America and Russia have again agreed on the Geneva approach from last June, which calls for talks between the regime and the opposition. Assad’s future remains in dispute: the Americans want him out while the Russians support him.

The Russians and Americans have also said that they will convene an international conference by the end of this month that will bring about negotiations between the opposition and the regime, but no specific time or agenda have been announced. Kerry does not believe that Assad can take part in a transition to democracy after the mass killing of innocent civilians, while Lavrov thinks that an opposition victory would break Syria into ethnic cantons.

And so the routine of horrors goes on. The regime continues with its ethnic cleansing, now in the village of al-Baida and the city of Banias, where the Alawite shabiha slaughtered men, women, and children with knives and the survivors fled.

Internal chaos

The American refusal to provide military aid for the democratic opposition has contributed greatly to the internal chaos. Al-Qaeda-affiliates, though in the minority, are able to set the tone. They unwittingly supply the regime with grist for propaganda, for Assad can argue that he is fighting a joint al-Qaeda–Zionist plot. The fact that the US line is unclear, while Iran and Russia continue to arm the regime, sows confusion within the Syrian opposition.

This state of things is evident in the fact that soon after Moaz al-Khatib was elected to head the National Coalition of the Syrian Opposition Forces, he quit. He had agreed to enter negotiations with the regime, but the latter had responded by rocketing civilians. When the West nonetheless remained unwilling to supply arms, al-Khatib resigned. Until today no replacement has been found.

The world’s hands-off policy has led to general confusion that also affects nearby countries. Iraq is on the verge of civil war between Kurds in the north, Sunnis in the west, and Shiites in the south, while Iran stirs the kettle. Lebanon is split between the supporters and opponents of Assad. The Syrian regime seeks to built an Alawite state, some of the rebels in the north dream of a Sunni emirate, and the democratic opposition gropes in the dark. For fear of the turmoil in Syria, Turkey has smoothed things out with Israel after the troubles of the Marmara affair, while achieving reconciliation with its Kurdish minority.

The Israeli bombardment does not contribute to regional stability, nor even to the security of Israel itself. It is the latest chapter in a lengthy process, which began when Israel stuck its hand into strife-ridden Lebanon in the early 1980’s, supporting the Maronites, an act that would spawn the Hezbollah and years of bloodshed. Syria’s fate lies solely in the hands of its citizens, who have demonstrated their readiness to risk their lives for democracy and social justice. That is the reason why they first went into the streets to demonstrate, and that is the reason they keep on fighting.

A democratic Syria is the historical imperative dictated by the Arab Spring. The hour demands that the world spare further suffering by supplying arms to the opposition and providing safe zones for civilians, so that the Syrian people can fulfill its right to peace and freedom.

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A political statement by Daam Workers Party on the recent Israeli air strikes in Syria

Daam Workers Party condemns the Israeli bombings of targets in Syria, especially in the heart of Damascus. This is blatant interference in the process that is underway in Syria, and it harms the revolution of the Syrian people: the struggle to topple the Assad regime and to live in dignity. Israel – which has been occupying the West Bank and the Golan Heights for decades, and which conducts an inhumane siege on Gaza – has no right to carry out an aggression which could lead to a regional war.

The Israeli adventure plays into the hands of the Assad regime, which conducts a barbaric attack on the Syrian people with support from Iran, Russia, and Hezbollah. The bombardment lends a sheen of credibility to Assad’s false claim that the revolution is an Israeli-American initiative. In recent days the regime, together with Hezbollah, has perpetrated a horrible massacre in the cities of Banias and Kassir; this is part of a program of ethnic cleansing, meant to terrorize the population and quell the revolution. The Israeli attacks distract attention from these crimes, putting the limelight instead on Israel’s long conflict with the Arab world. This is gratuitous service to the Assad regime.

The Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces, which represents the Syrian people, demands international action in order to defend the civilian population and stop the massacres. The international community’s ongoing refusal to fulfill this demand has cost more than 70,000 lives, while the number of wounded and imprisoned is in the hundreds of thousands and the number of refugees in the millions. The world’s silence is destroying Syria. In the midst of it, Israel attacks without getting international or Arab support for its actions. Israel’s purpose is to show its strategic dominance over the region. It has nothing to do with the interests or the aspirations of the Syrian people which Israel never respected.

The toppling of the Syrian or Iranian regime does not interest Israel. The struggle belongs to the Syrian and Iranian peoples, which pit themselves against Fascist dictatorial regimes. The future of Hezbollah in Lebanon is likewise the interest of the Lebanese people, which has been hostage to Hezbollah’s sectarian ambitions.

Daam calls on public opinion in Israel and the world to take an unequivocal stand against the right-wing Israeli government and to call for an end to aggression, an end to the policy of occupation and settlements, and an end to the attitude of refusal that prevents a peace agreement.

We bend our heads before the Syrian revolution and its victims!

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