BY: Abdul Rahman Al-Rashid OPINION ARABNEWS

It is not natural for the Israeli political and military establishment just to watch the events and violence taking place along its borders. During the past one year, the Israeli government did not spell out any stand on the Syrian revolution, although it was one of the dangerous incidents facing Israel since 1973 War.

Why we classify it as more dangerous than what is happening in Egypt or what had happened in Lebanon for years, because the system in Egypt remained intact even after the fall of Mubarak as the military is the country’s basic pillar. Lebanese crises and threats used to disturb Israel but never posed any threat to its national security.

The Syrian situation is different. There is a total revolution that aims to root out a regime that is important for Israel, which has played two roles in the past 40 years as police and troublemaker. Some people say that it was Israel that convinced the US and Russia not to support the revolutionists and it practically supported the Assad regime in Damascus. I believe that it had played a significant role in strengthening the Russian position to support the Assad regime at military and diplomatic levels.

The Israeli reasoning toward events taking place in Syria is not that difficult for us to understand. Israel believes that it would be safer under Assad regime than the new government whose credentials are unknown or the new Islamic extremist regime that would open a new war front with the Jewish state.

The most striking thing is that Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak went out to make a strong statement that he was convinced of the inevitable fall of the Assad regime. Barak’s analysis is important as it replaces the previous Israeli stand as he insisted that the fall of Assad regime would serve Israeli interests against Iran.
As expected Barak’s statement was taken by the pro-regime media as a good conduct certificate for the regime at a time its reputation had fallen sharply in the Arab world. The Syrian propaganda machinery believes that if it can convince millions of Arabs what Barak had said about the regime they would be ready to forget and forgive its crimes.

The Arab public usually stands against any team that is supported by the Israelis. In the past they had stood with Saddam, Iran and Hezbullah despite the crimes they had committed against their own people because they stood against Israel.

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