The Pied Piper of Washington
Toward the beginning of the new millennium the West was dying to become Hafas El-Asad’s best friend, but had a little problem: the father of the present Butcher Asad headed a terror state. Ways had therefore to be found to whitewash Syria’s image before any actual public rapprochement steps could be taken. Then President Bill Clinton understood that brokering a so-called “peace” between Syria and Israel would do the trick. There was the little problem of territorial concessions needed to stage the farce, which would seriously jeopardize Israel’s security, but “reassurances” would be given that would “guarantee” Israel’s safety.
I wrote an opinion piece about the situation, which was published in the Hebrew newspaper Ha’Aretz on January 13, 2000, under the title “The Pied Piper of Washington”. The following is an excerpt from that article:
“The Pied Piper of Hamelin is a story about a village infested by rats. The piper is a rat-catcher hired by the town to lure rats away with his magic pipe. When the citizenry refuses to pay for this service, he retaliates by turning his magic on their children, leading them away as he had the rats.
As in a bad movie the fairy tale has suddenly turned into a reality in which we unwillingly play the lead role.
Bill Clinton is not a worse president for the Jewish State than his predecessors. He is just more talented and instead of getting into a confrontation with us he deals with us softly. He makes an appalling demand – that the people of Israel give up their national and security assets and hand over the Golan Heights to the ailing dictator of a failing country in return for a future full of dangers – and manages to make this preposterous idea sound like an invitation to a ball.
Clinton charmed our leaders and our people and steered them in a direction that leads to the end of the State of Israel as an independent nation that can look after its own interests. We only see the vision of American-style prosperity, and not the inevitable decline of a nation that has lost its will to live. Our only chance is to force our leaders to wake up and listen to common sense above the pipe’s music coming to us from Washington.
But what will happen if we fail to waken them? Syria will be removed from the list of countries that support terror, will receive aid and a lot of money to help it raise from its ruins, which will allow it to gain the political and military power about which today it can only dream. Amazingly, we will be the ones to remove the obstacle that stands between the Western world and its dream to be friends with the Syrian dictator. The West itches to offer him massive economic and military aid, but cannot do so as long as Asad is identified with terror and refuses to talk peace. But if Israel walks into Asad’s bear hug, who will be able to criticize the US, France and the rest of the world for supporting the dictator, once the Israelis have placed the Kosher seal on him?
Let’s not forget that in the near future Hafez Asad will meet his Maker and the rule of his successors is not guaranteed. He was able to keep the stability of his regime thanks to his brutality and the easy nonchalance with which he ended every argument started by his subjects with a convincing bloodbath. But will his son and heir be able to keep those standards of repression and brutality? And if he walks in his father’s footsteps, is that the regime on which we want to stake our children’s future?”