The reaction in Israel to President Obama’s decision to ask for congressional authorization to strike Syria is truly bizarre. As far as I know, Israel has never been able to decide what they want to happen in Syria. Certainly, they would like to see Iran’s influence diminished in both Syria and Lebanon, and that argues for a defeat of the Assad regime. If it’s true that the Assad regime is increasingly willing to use chemical weapons, that is also a major concern for the Israelis. But Israel has lived for decades in a technical state of war with Syria without it ever being much of an existential concern. They’d rather deal with the devil they know than with the uncertainty of a failed state or a Salafist regime allied with al-Qaeda. This is why you haven’t seen much pressure from Israel-aligned lobbyists for the United States to enter the civil war in Syria.
Yet, the Israelis have been pushing the argument that chemical weapons are being used by the regime and making the case that the “red line” has been crossed. And they seem to think that President Obama’s failure to act so far is an indication that America can no longer be depended upon to enforce “red lines,” including a potential decision by Iran to fully-enrich their uranium stockpiles for nuclear weapons.
What’s not clear is why Israel thinks it is in their interests for the Obama administration to carry out a very limited punitive attack on Syria that won’t affect the outcome of the war there. Since they are not even convinced that the demise of the Assad regime is in their interests, it is confusing that they think a failure to strike the regime is a troubling precedent.
The only thing I can conclude is that they fear that America has lost the resolve to act in their interests, even if it is not clear that acting in this particular case would be in their interests. They want us to do something not so much because they think doing something would be productive but to prove that we’re still capable of doing something.
This whole thing is just strange.
