Neutrality is Israel’s wisest policy in Syria

By Lloyd Levy

Lloyd Levy
Lloyd Levy

EILAT, Israel — It never ceases to amaze me how Israel almost manages to be a proverbial island of tranquility in a sea of complete turmoil.

The preoccupation in Israel at the moment is the perceived extravagance of Prime Minister Benjamin Netenyahu and his wife. Apparently they had a special bed built on their airplane at a cost of $150,000 so that they could fly to London in comfort for Margaret Thatcher’s funeral. At a time when Israelis are being asked to pay more tax and suffer various cutbacks, the citizens are not amused at this revelation.

Yet about 130 miles from Tel Aviv, Syria is witnessing the most appalling civil war, and suffering.

I do not understand why the ‘West’ seem intent on overthrowing Syria’s President Bashar el-Assad, and I don’t understand why Israel appears to be allied with the West in this regard. Assad is no doubt a tyrant,  but then so are many other Arab leaders. The Syrian front with Israel has been quiet for nearly 40 years (apart from Syrian support for Hizbollah), and I simply don’t believe that one bunch of thugs (the so called opposition) overthrowing Assad and his thugs, is in Israel’s interests.  The Syrians have never been friends of the Jews, and anyone ruling Syria will be anti- Israel.

Russia was one of the very first countries to recognize Israel, just behind the USA. We should recognise that it was largely Russian efforts that defeated  Nazi Germany, and hence saved the remnants of Judaism.  Moreover, there are so many ex-Russians living in Israel, that it has become a mini  Russia in some regards.

Therefore I sincerely hope that Israel is not getting too involved as some sort of spearhead for the West against Syria. The same happened in 1956 when Israel colluded with Britain and France to attack Egypt. Much of the West, particularly Europe,  has become increasingly  anti Jewish and certainly anti-Israel, so why risk Jewish lives for their sake?

Now that Russia has made it plain that she is standing by Syria, it would be madness for Israel to get involved in some sort of anti-Syrian strategy.

Israel gains no long term benefit to be seen as an arm of Western domination, and it is  time that Israel tries again a policy of ‘neutrality’ in world affairs, as it indeed
did in its early days.

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Levy is a businessman who divides his time between Eilat and London.  He may be contacted via lloyd.levy@sdjewishworld.com