re: #93 CuriousLurker

One of the things that bugged me most about Netanyahu’s response was (I’m paraphrasing): What about all the people dying in Syria??

WTF does Syria have to do with settlements? Talk about a red herring. The Syrian Civil War started during the Arab Spring, back in 2011. I don’t recall Netanyahu expressing a lot of concern for Syrians in the five intervening years, so STFU and stop using their suffering to shield yourself from criticism.

He did have concern (rightly IMO) that rebels or Hizbullah or IS could fill the vacuum left by Assad and pose a threat to Israel across the DMZ. There’s been some allowance that civilians receive medical care in Israel, but you’re also right that he’s using the Syrian conflict to deflect from his government’s actions that are wrong.

At the same time, there’s also a legit grievance that the UN spends more time on Israel, which is a stable situation (no widespread violence, not open conflict) while the civil war/insurrection/terrorist takeover in neighboring Syria (with spillover in Iraq) is a greater threat to the region and with a greater loss of life. It’s a persecution complex, but it doesn’t help Israel either (and Israel has been dealing with this kind of thing for decades, so it’s not new or unexpected).