Digest 5 – Syria
JVL Introduction
The Middle East is being reshaped before our very eyes as events in Syria evolve at lightening pace.
We post without comment more than a dozen attempts, from a variety of perspectives, to understand the crisis there, the roles and attitudes of the US and Israel in particular, the possibilities and the dangers for Syria and the region.
The comments provided are those from the websites on which the articles appear, or short extracts from the interviews/articles in question.
A couple have been previously posted on our web page, but are included in the compilation below for ease of access.
RK
Things could go very wrong in Syria – they could also go very right. Let’s gift its people optimism
With the tyrant Assad gone, it’s important not to impose a negative script on what comes next. Syrians deserve support and hope
The dynamics of the Assad regime’s downfall
Anne Alexander looks at how the Syrian Revolution of 2011 and its defeat shaped the toppling of Bashar al-Assad
Anne Alexander, Socialist Worker, 09 Dec 2024
Inside Israel’s opportunistic invasion of Syria
Mitchell Plitnick, Mondoweiss, 13 Dec 2024
Since the fall of Bashar al-Assad, Israel has carried out an unprovoked invasion of Syria with the support of the U.S. The goals are clear: take strategic land, render Syria defenseless for the future, and redraw the political map of the Middle East.
My Double Exile From Syria and Palestine
Al Jazeera 13 Dec 2024
A Palestinian-Syrian shares her joy at the fall of Assad
It does not mean this change is good for Palestine. It may not be in the short run. You can still share the joy while not cheering for the new leaders of Syria. Syrians have paid with blood and tears to earn the right freedom to choose their own path as a people. Just as Palestinians choose to do.
The day the media decided militant jihadism was respectable
Jonathan Cook’s blog, 10 Dec 2024
Suddenly, after years of misrepresenting Hamas, western politicians and media are desperate to clarify – if only in Syria – the difference between jihadists and Islamic nationalists
Confusion in Syria
One of the great rules in life – be careful of what you wish for.
Tim Pendry, Unstable Times, 10 Dec 2024
“The sheer suddenness of the collapse of the Assad regime has taken everyone by surprise including the backers of the ‘rebels’ who may be embarrassed by the results despite their public rhetoric. Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) is merely a reshaped Al-Qaeda, persuaded, like the Taliban in their more recent determination to retain humanitarian and other funding, to moderate their public face in order to (in HTS’ case) acquire Western-linked weapons and financing. The Turks are the prime backers of recent activity although they have their own proxies. They are more interested in building capacity for ‘dealing with’ the Syrian Kurds. Undoubtedly Washington (CIA and State) were knowledgeable and supportive in order to secure their own bases.”
Assad downfall: Is the Arab Spring back from the dead? | Middle East Eye
David Hearst, Middle East Eye, 10 Dec 2024
If it does succeed, Syria could provide a powerful lesson in how a rebel movement gains national legitimacy
The Enemy of My Enemy is My Enemy
Interview With Rima Majed
Shireen Akram-Boshar, Spectre, 13 Dec 2024
“…it remains crucial to note that the unfolding events in Syria are part of a larger change in the region that will probably see a decline in the role of Iran and its allies and a reshuffling of power dynamics at the local levels.”
“To be accurate, this latest Israeli war on Lebanon did not start in September 2024, but on October 8, 2023—that is, in the aftermath of the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation. In that sense, it is hard to understand the developments in Lebanon in the past year without linking it to Gaza…”
“As in Gaza, Israel has crossed all red lines, committing war crimes by targeting civilians (mainly women and children), razing whole areas to the ground, demolishing infrastructure, using illegal weapons, and deliberately targeting medical, religious, archeological and historic sites in cities like Baalbeck, Tyre, and Nabatiyeh. ”
Syria: Thousands are freed from prisons, amidst hundreds of Israeli airstrikes.
JVP, The Wire, 11 Dec 2024
Last week, we argued that in the face of a rising far-Right, what we have is solidarity with each other. And true solidarity among the exploited and oppressed begins with the willingness to understand and bear witness to others’ pain, recognizing it as inseparably linked to our own.
It is with that commitment, and tears in our eyes, that we watched as thousands of Syrians were freed from the Assad regime’s dungeons, reuniting with their loved ones after years or decades behind bars.
These scenes are a powerful reminder of what we’re fighting for…
Israel Expands Invasion of Syria, Launching Massive Airstrikes After Assad’s Fall
Jeremy Scahill and Sharif Abdel Kouddous , Drop Site News, 10 Dec 2024
Israel’s message is clear: regardless of who governs Syria, Israel will ensure it does not possess the basic military capacity to defend itself.
Where is Syria headed?
“While observing the amazing historical events that unfolded since last Friday, the first thing that came to mind was relief and joy at the images of detainees being freed from the hell of the carceral society that Syria had become under the Assad family’s regime..
“Now, as the Arabic saying goes, the time has come for meditation after elation.”
“Assad Is Gone”: Writer Yassin al-Haj Saleh on Syria, His 16 Years in Prison & Wife’s Disappearance
Democracy Now, 9 Dec 2024
“We needed to turn this page. … We’ve been under this inhuman condition for 54 years.” Following a lightning 12-day offensive, armed opposition groups have overthrown President Bashar al-Assad’s regime and his family’s five-decade rule in Syria. Assad has fled to Russia, where he has been granted asylum, while tens of thousands of political prisoners have been freed. The uprising was led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, a Turkish-backed group listed as a terrorist organization by the United States and the United Nations. The release of prisoners from conditions of “hunger, humiliation, extreme despair” is a welcome and hopeful sign for the new balance of power in Syria, says the writer, dissident and political prisoner in Syria from 1980 to 1996, Yassin al-Haj Saleh, but it remains to be seen if others who were disappeared during the Syrian civil war, including al-Haj Saleh’s wife Samira, will be recovered or their fates identified.
Syria: What Comes After the Despot?
An interview with Anand Gopal, Jacobin, 11 Dec 2024
Anand Gopal on why the Assad dictatorship was one of the most brutal regimes of the 21st century and what’s likely to come next in Syria.
Syria’s Assad has fallen – just as the Pentagon planned 23 years ago
Jonathan Cook’s blog, 11 Dec 2024
When westerners see ‘enemy’ governments fall, or civil wars erupt, they are led to think they are the geopolitical equivalent of a natural event. Nothing could be further from the truth
Understanding the rebellion in Syria
An interview with Joseph Daher
The Tempest, 09 Dec 2024
In this interview, conducted amidst a rapidly changing situation in Syria, Tempest asks Swiss Syrian socialist Joseph Daher about the process that led to the fall of Assad’s rule, the prospects for progressive forces, and the challenges they face in fighting for a truly liberated country that serves the interests of all its peoples and popular classes.
“No trust should be accorded to [HTS and SNA]. Only the self-organization of popular classes fighting for democratic and progressive demands will create that space and open a path toward actual liberation. This will depend on overcoming many obstacles from war fatigue to repression, poverty, and social dislocation.”
From Syria to Palestine, liberation comes from below
Joseph Daher, The New Arab, 11 Dec 2024
Daher explains why the Assad regime’s toppling in Syria is important to liberation efforts across the region, especially for the Palestinian struggle.
How have Palestinian groups reacted to the ouster of Syria’s al-Assad?
Al Jazeera, 09 Dec 2024
Palestinian factions say they hope the new Syrian authorities will support Palestine’s struggle for freedom and justice.
The Downfall of the Assad Regime Is Israel’s Victory
Archived here
Yossi Melman, Haaretz, 09 Dec 2024
When Hamas leader Yahiya Sinwar planned and executed his brutal massacre on October 7, 2023, he hoped to trigger a wider chain reaction that would inflict carnage and overwhelming chaos on Israel and change the face of the Middle East.Sinwar’s plan worked, except in reverse. With the downfall of Bashar Assad in Syria, the region is facing a new reality.
Please mind your language
Michael Rosen, Facebook, 16 Dec 2024
[‘Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said the government had “unanimously approved” the “demographic development” of the occupied territory [of the Golan Heights], which would seek to double the Israeli population there.’ Aljazeera 16 Dec 2024]
A degenerate regime falls – what may replace it?
Kevin Ovenden, Counterfire, 08 Dec 2024
Kevin Ovenden outlines the rise and fall of Arab nationalism and asks what are the options now for Syria and the region
Assad dithered caught between trying to appease the US after they launched a dirty war against him and screwed Syria with extreme sanctions and stole the country’s oil and wheat. He declined to take advice from Russia to re-equip the army and turned away from Iran. But do you think that what is going to come will be better? For the Palestinians? The enemy is the USA and Israel. The idea that things will be ‘better’ now is for the birds. Apart from Jonathan Cook there is a distinct lack of politics here. The major enemy is imperialism. This is what we should unite the world against.