In the blind spot of history

Dear Reader,

For those of you who don’t know, before I moved to Germany I spent several years in the Middle East and still occasionally report from afar on Middle Eastern news.

With no journalists on the ground in Assad-controlled Syria, the main source journalists have used is the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Run by exiles in London, it has an extensive network of sources across the country. What I have found fascinating about the Observatory’s work is how meticulously they have detailed Israeli airstrikes in Syria over recent months.

In contrast to the propagandistic death counts that come out of Lebanon and Gaza (which give the impression that every fatality is a civilian), the Observatory lists the number of combatants killed and their nationalities, as well as civilian deaths.

It is hard not to read between the lines that the Observatory knew very well that Israel was helping to bring about the end of the Assad regime (even if for its own purposes).

Militants on the ground …