Free Republic

In the wake of this weekend's Israeli strike in the Golan Heights, which killed Hezbollah operatives and an Iranian general, Sunday's comments by Syria's information minister are particularly illuminating. Omran Zoubi said the "cost of maintaining regional security is much lower than that of a huge deterioration that develops in a negative way," which can be read as an appeal for the Israelis to avoid taking things further. In contrast, officials from Hezbollah and have spoken openly about retaliation, something that used to threaten after Israeli strikes in the past. This demonstrates that the Syrian regime exists on paper, but...