Israel Matzav

Krauthammer: Appeasement of the first order

We haven’t had an ambassador because we know, we suspect — we’re sure, actually, Syrians were involved in the murder of Rafik Hariri, former prime minister of Lebanon, a broad daylight assassination. At that time, he was the leader of the anti-Hezbollah, the anti-Syria forces.

As a result, there was a [international] court that was convened. The Bush administration pushed hard to have it active. It will render a verdict in days now, and it will indict high-level Hezbollah officials in Lebanon and probably Syria.

This is a regime that has been arming Hezbollah to the teeth [with] tens of thousands of rockets, violating every provision of the truce that was declared after the Second Israel-Lebanon War, [is an] ally of Iran, essentially an enemy of the United States, undermining all our activities and infiltrating itself into Lebanon out of which it had been kicked in 2005.

All of this is happening and what does the administration do? It sends an ambassador in return for absolutely nothing. Returning an ambassador after withdrawal is a sign of conciliation and, in this case, appeasement. There is nothing, there is no reason to do it. Obama had a dream that if he sweet-talked Assad he would get Syria to break its relations with Iran and Hezbollah and become an ally of the United States. It [the Obama administration] gave all kind of inducements. It was humiliated by Assad’s response. He expressed contempt for these inducements — [and] the United States offered it in return, the return of an ambassador! It’s appeasement of the first order.

Labels: Barack Obama, Bashar al-Assad, Charles Krauthammer, Robert Ford, US ambassador to Syria

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 10:39 AM