Martin Jay
The slaughter of civilians, mainly Alawites loyal to the former Syrian president Bashar al Assad, is a wake-up call for America.
The slaughter of civilians, mainly Alawites loyal to the former Syrian president Bashar al Assad, is a wake-up call for America and all eyes will now be on Trump as to see whether he supports heinous killing by HTS fighters - and therefore supports Netanyahu - or whether he sees the importance of reigning in this group and its barbarous style of governance.
As he and his officials watch the hideous video clips of entire families being slaughtered the irony of his own legacy in Syria and Iraq will not be lost on him and many will say the real cause of blowback here is inconsistent U.S. foreign policy in the region. The very ISIS fighters that Trump was killing with U.S. troops in January of 2017 when he took office, are the same people who are now running Syria and are apparently allies.
Of course, many will hastily point to the Biden administration and wave the finger at the eleventh hour decision for the HTS group to be given the cash to advance on Damascus and overthrow Assad. Was it a decision taken entirely by Netanyahu or did he consult Biden? Did Trump know anything about it at all?
What is clearer is that America's history of backing terror groups comes with a heavy cost as there is no mistake now that the HTS cannot 'reform' into the required vision of a 'moderate' Islamic government which the West can do business with.
In the early 90s George H. W. Bush invited Taliban officials to come and visit the U.S. as part of a way of getting to know them, so that they would sign off on a massive gas pipeline deal stretching the entire width of the country and bringing trillions of dollars to the Californian energy group behind it. They turned up, of course, in their traditional attire and drank tea and mooched with Bush and his cabal. The deal was never signed as they would not budge on their extortionate demand of a 100m dollars per year just to protect the pipeline, once built. At that time, the Taliban were stoning to death women and carrying out the most barbaric practices. None of this seemed to have any bearing on the deal or whether a U.S. administration could get along with them or not.
But these extremists had something. They had cards, as Trump likes to say. In the case of the present Syrian regime it is hard to see what they have to offer the Trump administration, however, to adapt to whatever the vision is of a reformed terror group turned government. They have Israel on their side, as well as the EU, which made the most preposterous statement following the atrocities which largely blamed the Alawites of starting the attacks on the HTS henchmen. And so, without minerals or oil, in the greater part of Syria which they control, they will have to lean heavily on the political support of both Netanyahu and EU officials as they face Trump's reaction in the coming days which is unlikely to be complimentary. The defiance of the EU, which we've seen with Ukraine, looks as though it will be repeated as it has already indicated that it is investing longer term with the HTS government, perhaps indicating that Israel's lobby cash and power has penetrated the power annals of Brussels deeper than what was previously believed.
For Israel, it suits the hardliners and Netanyahu perfectly well that Joulani and his henchmen carry out such barbarism. It reinforces the clichés it wishes to cultivate to stir hatred among ignorant Americans and gives an extra veneer to its jubilance of what it perceives to be defeating the axis of resistance all the way to Tehran.
The huge question now is really about the relationship between Trump and Netanyahu which analysts struggle with, especially following social media posts which Trump made after a few days in office which suggested that he was unhappy with the Israeli leader and his desire for war with Iran. Does Netanyahu need to be put in line? Trump may well think that arming to the teeth the Kurds in the North and allowing a civil war to unfold against the HTS could be leverage over the Israeli leader whose days in office are numbered in any case. Alternatively, he could come down harder on the HTS and its bearded leader and send U.S. troops to Syria as part of program which keeps them there as peacekeepers, to police the savages - a similar mentality seen in Iraq. For some, this might seem like fighting fire with gasoline, as, after all, it was another failure on the part of the Obama administration to govern Iraq which led to the creation of the very terror group which is in power today in Damascus. The problem of course is that if you fight such terror groups head on, you're feeding the axis of resistance which is the greater enemy. Tough call for Trump.