Fw from David McR: Israeli Attacks on Syria - the dangers are very real - memo to activists

----- Original Message ----- 
From: David McReynolds 
To: [email protected] 
Sent: Sunday, May 05, 2013 10:20 PM
Subject: Re: Israeli Attacks on Syria - the dangers are very real - memo to activists





And to the EdgeLeft list
David


  I'm sending this to several lists, so some of you will get it at least twice - sorry about that.

  While at this point Israel has not confirmed the attacks, it has been reliably established that 
  Israeli jets struck twice at Damascus, killing perhaps at least a hundred Syrian troops and
  inflicting heavy damage on facilities in the Syrian capital. 

  The US media (and officials) are thus far supporting the Israeli actions and there is a general
  assumption that such a major military strike would not have occurred without at least some
  consultation with Washington DC.

  The Israeli excuse (if it is possible, really, to excuse two heavy air strikes at the capital city
  of a neighboring country!) is that it was concerned about the shipment of military supplies from Syria to Hezbollah in Lebanon. 

  It should not be necessary (but it may help) to point out that unlike Syria, Israel is, like the US, a democracy. And while that is true, it is necessary to point out that the US citizens have little control over our own military, having seen wars launched without Congressional approval in Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, etc. Wars which, while launched "by a democracy" have had an
  absolutely lethal impact on the people - men, women and children - in the countries we have
  "democratically" attacked. In the same way, Israel, an apartheid state, which has denied
  basic human rights to the Occupied Territories for decades, has conducted criminal attacks on the Palestinians not only in the West Bank but in Gaza, and that the very existence of Hezbollah in Lebanon is a direct result of the Israeli invasion of Lebanon some years ago.

  As one of the former heads of Shin Bet said, in the powerful and timely documentary "The Gatekeepers", Israel wins the battles but is losing the war. The last thing which is in the long
  range interests of Israel is any further military escalation with its neighbors.

  One can assume that the Israeli lobby - not just AIPAC, the American Jewish Congress, etc. - will press for more direct US involvement, but that the Republican Party will press for more military action and Obama may well decide to give Israel US support and possibly to escalate US
  military aid to the rebels.

  The truth - not easy to find in the US media - is that Assad is not losing the civil war but, if
  anything, has been winning it, as the rebels come more and more under the influence of Islamist
  elements which, in power, would prove more murderous than Assad. This is a story we have
  seen before - remember the fall out from our support for the Afghan opposition to the Soviet
  invasion, and how those weapons were, in turn, directed at the US.

  It is urgent that local peace and justice groups take action to demand the US stay out of the Syrian Civil War, that it use its influence in the Security Council to denounce the Israeli action
  (fat chance of that - but we can urge it). Letters to the newspapers, letters (not emails) to members of Congress - and most important arranging to send community delegations to visit with your member of Congress when he or she is home on the wekends.

  I'm sending this out as widely as I can and hope that whatever other disagreements some of our groups have with one another we can be united in opposing further escalation of the Syrian civil war. 

  Urgently, 
  David McReynolds
  NYC