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How Israel Could Gain from Syria's Civil War
(Ha'aretz) Amos Harel - Recent developments in Syria actually point to the continuation of the civil war more than its end. The EU announcement that it was lifting the embargo on supplying arms to the rebels was met by an immediate Russian response that it was committed to its arms deals with the Assad regime. According to an organization monitoring the conflict, some 141 Hizbullah fighters were killed in the last month alone, 79 in the last 10 days, during the battle for Qusayr. In other words, Hizbullah lost more than 1% of its operational combat power within a month due to its support of Assad - quite a significant number of casualties for a relatively small guerrilla movement. To the obvious weakening of the Syrian army, exhausted by the constant killing, one must now add the erosion of Hizbullah's forces. Nasrallah is facing unprecedented inner criticism in Lebanon due to his intervention in Syria. This week Britain and France promoted an initiative to have the EU declare Hizbullah a terrorist organization - a move that might limit Hizbullah's operations abroad.