Syrian war could yield peace, Israeli official tells AIPAC

WASHINGTON — A window of opportunity for peace with Syria and Lebanon could open as a result of the Syrian civil war, former MK Avi Dichter, a former Shin Bet head and internal security minister, told a packed house at the AIPAC policy conference’s opening plenary session Sunday morning.

“Whether it will take a year or a decade, Syria will be ruled by a Sunni regime. The Alawites will go through a massacre,” he  predicted. “The only question that remains is what kind of Sunnis are going to run and lead Syria. Are they going to be the extremist Islamists, or are they going to be close to the liberals? That’s the most important question that we ask ourselves, Israelis and Europeans and even Arab countries.

“Hezbollah is going to weaken and weaken, and if in Syria a liberal regime, or close to liberal regime, will be established, the Sunnis and Christians in Lebanon will be more dominant, then in Lebanon a window will open. We have one in Egypt. We already have one in Jordan and Syria and Lebanon is the closed window that might be opened in the coming years.”

After two speakers who discussed campus activism and Israel’s willingness to care for wounded Syrians, Mideast geopolitics took its anticipated role at center stage during a panel discussion between Dichter, former US senator Joe Lieberman, and Senator Chris Coons (D-DE).

Both Coons and Lieberman warned that thus far, America’s reactions to the ongoing civil war in Syria – and particularly to President Bashar Assad’s use of chemical weapons — have diminished America’s stature in the Middle East.

“The best thing that the administration can do is to get involved in Syria to stop the killing, stop the chaos and support the moderates who really want to be our allies,” Lieberman continued.

Lieberman sounded a strong note, telling the enthusiastic crowd that if negotiations between the P5+1 and Iran fail, the United States should “do what is right” regarding its international obligations and take military action against the Iranian nuclear program.

“Some say that Congress getting involved will hurt diplomacy,” said Lieberman, referring to the Obama administration’s main talking point against the Menendez-Kirk legislation to threaten Iran with new sanctions if the P5+1 nuclear talks fail to yield a comprehensive agreement.

“Unless Congress does some of the things that AIPAC is asking it to do this week,” he warned, “we will have to decide whether to accept a nuclear Iran” or to carry out a military strike against its nuclear infrastructure.