In
March 2011 a series of nonviolent demonstrations began in the cities of
Syria, which expressed the wish of its citizens to live in a more
decent state. Two
and a-half years later, more than 100,000 are dead and four million are
refugees in Syria and abroad. Hundreds of thousands of houses and
apartments have been turned into rubble and the infrastructure in large
parts of the country has been shattered. Without
a doubt, there has been enough time, enough deaths, refugees and
destruction for the world -- which claims to be guided by moral
considerations -- to wake up and do something beyond verbal
condemnation.
But
this has happened. The world continues to look away. As far as it's
concerned, the Syrians can die like insects just because they want to
get rid of the
dictator who presumes to serve as their liaison officer with paradise by
turning Syria into hell.
The
Western world, which invented the concept of "human rights", has
forgotten that Syrians are also "human". There's no one to lobby on
their behalf because
there is no oil in their country. The knights of human rights have not
been moved by events in Syria since no Jews or Israelis are involved in
perpetrating the disaster. What would they be saying if Israel had done
to its Arab citizens just one percent of what
the regime in Syria is doing to its citizens?
A document written by General Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff reveals the truth: The United States does not intervene in Syria because it had no national interest in doing so.
Not
a single country has even so much as announced a boycott of products
manufactured by enterprises belonging to the Syrian government. The
world is afraid
to confront Syria because Iran has threatened to act against the oil
industry in the Gulf if Syrian President Bashar Assad is toppled.
The
world has also been standing by as Islamists attack the Christian Copts
in Egypt, burning dozens of their churches and killing their adherents.
The
sad conclusions to emerge from the world's silence in the face of the
suffering in the Middle East are very important to us as Israelis:
1. Even if tens of thousands of Israelis are killed, injured or displaced by war or terrorism -- the world will fail to respond.
2.
Israel must not make any concessions in return for international
guarantees, because when put to the test, every state operates according
to its current interests,
not according to its past commitments or moral considerations.
3. Moral considerations do not affect actions. Anti-Semitism, however, pushes moral imposters to boycott Israeli products.
4. Even those who use non-violent means may be exposed to violent reaction, and the world accepts this immoral equation.
5.
If Iran does not threaten the West, the West will again be willing to
sacrifice the Jews to the point of extermination, as long as oil from
the Persian Gulf
keeps flowing into the energy market.
6.
In an international system that operates without a moral compass,
Israel must act according to its own best interests. And if the security
interest - Israel's
existence - means holding on to all the Land of Israel or part of it -
other considerations must not be involved in the decision.
7.
Ethical considerations such as "the Palestinians also deserve a state"
must be compared to saying that "Syrians deserve to live." A European or
American who
does not care about Syrian life has no right to demand that Israel be
more moral than him.
8. Peace in the Middle East will only be achieved by he who is able to demonstrate to his opponents that he is invincible.
Mordechai Kedar is Director of the Center for the Study of the Middle East and Islam (under formation) at Bar-Ilan University, Israel
Thanks Nurit G.
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