Let's start with the glass half full. In a clandestine July 22 operation, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) evacuated several hundred activists from the White Helmets, the Syrian humanitarian civil defense group, and their family members, and removed them from the fighting in southern Syria, through Israel, to Jordan. From there, they will continue on, to be settled in the United Kingdom, Germany, France and Canada. Even the European Union, which does not often pamper Israel with compliments, issued a statement recognizing the efforts by Israel and others to bring the activists to safety. At the end of June, the IDF had provided tents, food, medical equipment, shoes and clothing for Syrians who had escaped to a tent encampment on the Golan.
As for the half-empty glass, after the rescue, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a statement stressing that he had approved the activists’ transit through Israeli territory to other countries. In other words, none were allowed to remain on its territory. Israel only served as a conduit. The day after getting the aid to the displaced Syrians on the Golan, the IDF made clear that Israel would not allow in Syrians. In other words, residents of Israel’s settlements on the Golan Heights, which Israel captured from Syria in 1967, will soon be watching the slaughter of Syrians across the border by Syrian government forces.
