This would be funny if it wasn’t so sad. Via Martin Kramer, From Al Ahram
This is tricky. Syria is tricky,” said another Arab League official. He added: “Syria is different from any other Arab country.”
According to this Arab League official, as well as Arab diplomats, the reason that “Syria is different” is the over three-decade Israeli occupation of the Syrian Golan Heights.
Being a country under Israeli occupation, Arab diplomats agree, gives the ruling regime in Damascus a certain particularity the country is in effect in a state of war.
This does not cancel the Syrian right to democracy. “But you just have to worry about whether or not Israel has a hand in what is going on,” said one Arab diplomat.
The same diplomat added that he has no information on any Israeli intervention in the current demonstrations: “none”. He also said that no other Arab state has tabled any credible information to suggest that Israel is instigating current calls for reform in Syria.
Kramer writes: That’s right, the Golan Heights—0.65% of Syria’s land mass—is in Israel’s usurping hands. So fire away at those protesters! Asad has a license.