Violence on the Syrian-Israeli Border; Mass Grave Found Near Dara'a (VIDEO)
source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNxXJWZQ58w&feature=player_embedded
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The violence on the Syrian-Israeli border on Sunday could signal a change in the Syrian government's strategy as popular protests continue among its citizens into a third month, says the New York Times. The Syrian-Israeli border had been relatively quiet for the past 37 years but Sunday's demonstrations in the Golan Heights -- which Israel seized in 1974 -- and elsewhere on Syria's borders, including that with Lebanon, "could augur a new phase of the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad and the web of international relations he is navigating."
The White House has accused Syria of provoking clashes between Israeli troops and Palestinian demonstrators to divert attention from Syria's brutal crackdown of the uprising within its own borders. The Syrian government has so far blamed the protests that started in the southern city of Dara'a in March on foreigners and armed groups backed by Islamists.
Four people were killed by Israeli soldiers in the Golan Heights on Sunday. But the very fact that the authoritarian Syrian government, which severely limits access to the area and to its borders, allowed protesters to venture there is notable. This was the first time in President Bashar al-Assad's 11-year-reign that he has "demonstrated to Israel, the region and world that in an uprising that has posed the greatest threat to his family’s four decades of rule, he could provoke war to stay in power." Radwan Ziadeh, a Syrian dissident and visiting scholar at George Washington University, underscored this point:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNxXJWZQ58w&feature=player_embedded
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/16/world/middleeast/16golan.html?_r=1&ref=mid...
The White House has accused Syria of provoking clashes between Israeli troops and Palestinian demonstrators to divert attention from Syria's brutal crackdown of the uprising within its own borders. The Syrian government has so far blamed the protests that started in the southern city of Dara'a in March on foreigners and armed groups backed by Islamists.
Four people were killed by Israeli soldiers in the Golan Heights on Sunday. But the very fact that the authoritarian Syrian government, which severely limits access to the area and to its borders, allowed protesters to venture there is notable. This was the first time in President Bashar al-Assad's 11-year-reign that he has "demonstrated to Israel, the region and world that in an uprising that has posed the greatest threat to his family’s four decades of rule, he could provoke war to stay in power." Radwan Ziadeh, a Syrian dissident and visiting scholar at George Washington University, underscored this point:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNxXJWZQ58w&feature=player_embedded
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/16/world/middleeast/16golan.html?_r=1&ref=mid...
