The unrestrained joy of the Syrian people is plain for all the world to see. Their revolution enters the second week. After decades of brutal repression, the dictator Assad is gone. The prisons are emptying. Families reunited with loved ones who disappeared many years ago. Millions of refugees are going home.
And the signs are encouraging. The leader of the main Jihadist group HTS talks of religious freedom and women dressing as they like. In the north Kurdish and Islamist factions declare a truce. A Jesuit priest describes on British radio how in the run-up to Christmas, Christians appear to have more freedom to worship in Damascus than they do in Betlehem.
The big powers, taken aback at the speed and depth of the revolution, are grasping for a foothold in the new political geography of Syria. But in public, at least, they are welcoming the new government and trying to establish relations. There is goodwill all round and although cautious, everyone wants the Syrians to succeed.
Everyone apart from Israel. Even as Assad was running for the airport the Israeli military started operations. They seized the UN controlled buffer zone on the Eastern side of the Golan Heights and invaded further into southern Syria.
And all week they bombed Syria. Over 1800 raids on more than 500 targets. Israeli commanders proudly claim to have taken out 85% of Syria’s air defences.
In a complete abuse of the English language Israel suggests these actions are in self-defence. Anywhere else in the world they would be regarded as acts of war. They are. And not a war against the Assad regime, but against the Syrian people who have ousted it.
So why is Israel bombing Syria after the fall of Assad? Most countries in the world, many even in Washington, would view the creation of a tolerant unified Arab republic in Syria as a positive development. The Israelis do not. The emergence of a pluralist society and strong democratic state on their borders is a nightmare for those who control the Israeli state and military. Far better to have unstable governments with factions fighting each other.
But Israel also sees Syria as the road to Iran. IDF commanders have said so openly this week in the Israeli media. They are now seriously eyeing up the possibility of an all-out strike on Iran, knowing that they have full control of the skies over Syria.
Israel does this because it can. It is to all intents and purposes a rogue state. Driven by a lethal cocktail of paranoia, victimhood and brutality, it sees no need to answer to the UN or anyone else. Its state institutions are now in the hands of far-right fanatics who aspire to a greater Israel and the elimination of the Palestinian people.
The fact that Netanyahu is elected is of little solace. Israeli public opinion is now dominated by anti-Arab racism and respect for minorities within the country, or notions of co-existence with people outside it, have been marginalised. This is not the hallmark of a democratic society.
This weekend the death toll in Gaza topped forty-five thousand. Seventy percent of the deaths are women and children. Israeli maintains its assault on Gaza unabated. Entire families are killed in the tents in which they seek protection from the elements. Much of northern Gaza remains under siege as civilians run out of food and medicine.
Two weeks ago, Amnesty International published a major 300-page report detailing the genocide which is now being prosecuted against the Palestinian population in Gaza. The evidence is there for anyone to read. Most of the world is horrified, but the wealthiest and most powerful nations turn away and let it happen.
Most of the blame lies with America, the world’s superpower. It has bankrolled and politically guaranteed the State of Israel since its inception. This is the only way a country of less than ten million people could ignore world opinion and get away with serial breaches of international law.
We cannot control what happens in the US. But we can influence what happens here. To its eternal shame the new Labour UK government is now complicit in the genocide in Gaza. It is providing both the physical means and the political justification for it. To their credit many Labour MPs stand opposed to the actions of their government, but the cowardly connivance of the majority allows it to happen.
And what of Scotland? The Scottish government has been clear in its condemnation of genocide and has called for the UK to suspend arms sales to Israel, lacking the power to take such action itself. But some of these arms and components are manufactured in Scotland, and whilst the Scottish government has no power to stop that, it can do other things. As many, most recently Amnesty International, have pointed out, it is inconsistent to have a policy which says no arms sales to Israel whilst at the same time providing public grants to the very companies who are selling them.
Companies are corporate legal entities. It matters not that the arms are made by one part of a company but not another, its still that company. Scottish Enterprise, who distribute this public money to BAE Systems and others, claim that they check that grants aren’t going to companies who breach international humanitarian law. Perhaps they should check harder.
It is time to stop spending public money on arms companies who bolster the Israeli war effort. It’s called leverage. We don’t have much of it, but what we have we should use.