(Washington Post) Editorial - The Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad on Sunday made a desperate effort to distract attention from its continuing, bloody assaults on its own people. Hundreds of Palestinians were bused from refugee camps near Damascus to the de facto border with Israel in the Golan Heights, where they broke through a fence and invaded a nearby town. No one can reach the heavily militarized Syrian front with Israel without the consent and cooperation of the Assad regime. The government of Benjamin Netanyahu has been portrayed as preferring the Assad regime to a revolution, in part because Syria has kept the peace on the Golan Heights border. Yet now Mr. Assad has shown that he is ready to disrupt that peace in the effort to save himself. The only reasonable conclusion, for both Israel and the U.S., is that this Syrian regime can never be a reliable neighbor or partner - and that peace in the Middle East depends on its demise.
2011-05-17 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive