In interview with ToI, a Free Syrian Army officer expresses hope for friendly relations with Jewish state, warns of Iranian militias propping up Assad: ‘They will come for Israel, too’
The commander interviewed by The Times of Israel participated in the recent seizure of Aleppo and his troops are now fighting government forces, Hezbollah and Iran-backed militias in the area, and pushing south.
The rebel leader, in his early 60s, agreed to be interviewed by phone on condition of anonymity and spoke of the objectives of the ongoing campaign, his vision for the future of Syria and relations with Israel, and the role the Jewish state can play, in his view, in support of the rebels.
Assad is 100% a super bad. But the rebels are ex Al Qaeda and ISIS.
The US and Israel will support whichever group fights against their enemy.
Assad was supplying Iranian weapons to Hezbollah through Syria. And instead of fighting Israel these rebels used the opportunity to backstab the people who were fighting Israel because Assad was weakened.
In the short term this would be a win. But in the long term Israel is planning to take over Syria and not stopping Israel now will prove an incredibly stupid mistake.
Previously there was Saddam Hussein at the Sunni side who was growing too powerful. Thus the US and Israel supported the Shia’s. Now it is the other way around.
The US and Israel keeps switching sides to support the weakest party until they all kill eachother. Then they steal their land.
That makes a lot more sense when you consider that many of these grew from militants fighting the US invasion of Iraq, so of course they were involved with Al Qaeda and ISIS (less ISIS because they’re ISIS), who were also fighting the US invasion in Iraq. “Former Al Qaeda” says literally nothing about the people involved here other than they’re maybe Islamist. “Al Qaeda” isn’t a bad word that destroys anything it touches. Also you say backstab like Assad was acting for the good of Syria (or literally anyone other than himself), but this man is/was hated by most of Syria and the Arab world. Why you want anyone to tolerate him because he’s doing one good thing I have no idea, but to the people being oppressed by that bastard they can’t just tiddle their thumbs until he finishes liberating Palestine (hint: He wasn’t going to do that, because he was too busy committing warcrimes against his own people).
Because the big war with Israel is going on. If the rebels do not stand up to Israel then Syria will suffer the same fate as Libya in the future. And subsequently be annexed into Greater Israel.
Furthermore it will make everyone more wary to help the Palestinians, knowing there are people who will take advantage of their weakened forces if they join the war.
Uh… This is Syria, not Libya.
They can stand up to Israel themselves, without having to get tortured in prison camps to satisfy Assad’s whims. I’m not sure what-centric this way of thinking is, but to Syrians the big war is the one they’ve been fighting for 14 years against Assad-backed Russia.
Only if they have a civil war going on. Also Assad didn’t join any wars (again, too busy committing war crimes against his own people), so the only lesson here is “don’t oppress your people so bad they fight you for fourteen years”. If anything, Palestinians could find themselves with a new ally depending on how the new government turns out.
Sorry I lost myself in the sentence. Meant Syria will suffer the same fate as Libya.
Assad was transporting Iranian weapons to Lebanon against Israel. It would be amazing if the new Syrian government fought against Israel but so far no single word about Palestine from them.
Dude, they’re literally asking for a genocidal regime’s help and you’re turning this around and making it about who the U.S. and Israel supports.
Weak.
Who are you taking about right now?
The rebels? The ones literally asking Israel for help?
This would be like if the Chechens during their 1940s revolt asked Nazi Germany for help and you turned it around and talked about how the Nazis would support either the Soviets or the Chechens depending on which was better for them.
That’s not the point, the point would be asking the Nazis for help.
And in this case, the regime that is now running Syria is asking the Nazis for help.
That is just indefensible.
Of course I agree with that. That is why this is a very bittersweet liberation of Syria. If it even will be a liberation at that.
There’s no sweetness. One murderous regime is replacing another murderous regime and the rest of the Syrians lose either way. There is no victory here that should be celebrated. It’s just Stalin replacing Hitler in East Germany. Everyone else who lived there lost.
You’re talking as if there was ever a point in human history that wasn’t like this. This is geopolitics. This is humanity. Yes, it sucks. However, there is a version of “sweetness” here, but this is the bittersweet kind. Its the periods of general peace between the hot wars of destruction and revolution where humanity has the chance to lurches forward a bit.
If the end of the Syrian civil war means a few decades where people in Syria can generally live in peace without bombs or artillery falling on their homes and their families, thats a win. That may be as good as it gets, but its a win.