The Levantine Unraveling

Haaretz reports that as many 10,000 Syrian soldiers have defected from Bashar al-Assad’s murderous army and that as many as half refused to show up the last three times they were called.

Assad may yet pull through, but at this point I’m guessing he won’t. If he doesn’t tighten his grip on Syria fast, he definitely won’t.

Hezbollah can survive without its Syrian patron, but his fall in Damascus will be felt in South Lebanon like a gut punch.

Before he was car-bombed on his way to work in the morning in 2005, the Lebanese journalist and activist Samir Kassir thought the Beirut Spring would cause roses to bloom in Damascus. It didn’t happen. The reverse, however, just might.