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In Israel, No Silver Linings

(Washington Post) Michael Gerson - Israel is the relatively quiet eye of the Middle Eastern storm. But there are vistas of conflict on nearly every side. The triumph of Bashar al-Assad in Syria, according to Sallai Meridor, the former Israeli ambassador to the U.S., would "not be the devil we know, but a much worse devil, an agent of Iran and Hizbullah." Israel's cold peace with Egypt is fragile, and a distracted Egyptian military could allow jihadists to cause trouble in the Sinai. "We look at Jordan," says Meridor, "and pray." Not all the consequences of regional chaos are immediately bad for Israel. The Syrian military has been decimated as a fighting force. Hizbullah, by joining Assad's anti-Sunni holy war, has lost its luster in the Arab world. But the general Israeli attitude is worry and wariness - the understandable attitude of a people with a long history of heroism but not much experience with happy endings.
2013-07-17 00:00:00
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