By Andrew L. Jaffee

In the fantasy world of Arab/Muslim dictatorships, two of the key players who stoked Hezbollah’s war against Israel have become peacemakers. No really. They said so. All’s Syrian President Bashar Assad and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad want is peace. Never mind the fact that they are “the main outside sponsors of Hizballah.” Not only has Hezbollah been responsible for the deaths of 1,000 Lebanese and 157 Israelis in the current conflict, it has, among other things, killed 17 American citizens (1983), slaughtered 241 U.S. troops (1983), blown up a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires, killing 86 and injuring over 200, etc. But these are minor details. Just this week, both Assad and Ahmadinejad claimed to be men of peace.

Assad, from Fox News:

The Syrian leader said U.S. participation was needed for a peace settlement in the Middle East…

This is an [Bush] administration that adopts the principle of pre-emptive war that is absolutely contradictory to the principle of peace…

Ahmadinejad, also from Fox News:

“We are not at all happy with war,” he said. “People, innocent people are being killed.” …

“Basically we are not looking for ? working for the bomb,” he added. “The time of the bomb is in the past. It’s behind us. Today is the era of thoughts, dialogue and cultural exchanges.”

My, what high-sounding words from men with a lot of blood on their own hands. Assad has no compunction with allowing murderers safe passage through his country to wreak havoc in Iraq. He has no qualms about knocking off his Arab opponents in Lebanon. Assad happily maintains his Alawite minority rule over his own people, just as did his father, Hafez el Assad:

The Alawites seized control in Syria in 1963, and Assad himself assumed supreme command in 1970. And just imagine the thirst for vengeance vis-୶is the Muslim majority. When he came to power he basically cleaned out the entire state apparatus and filled all key positions with his families and cronies. It is no accident that the top level in the Syrian army is virtually all Alawite.

Syria’s brutal, 17-year occupation of Lebanon? But who’s counting?

As for Ahmadinejad, he has been advocating genocide against Israel since he took office. He’s denied that the Holocaust ever occurred. He’s advocated the ethnic cleansing of Jews from Israel, and has reiterated this stance many times, e.g., “Israel ‘is an illegitimate regime, there is no legal basis for its existence,’ he said.” Ahmadinejad’s thugs hung two boys for being gay last July. “We are not at all happy with war,” but we want Israel “wiped off the map,” right? Makes sense in an Islamo-fascist kinda way.

Men of peace, just not when it comes to their own people, never mind their neighbors. Syria is a Soviet-style, Orwellian nightmare, while Iran is an Islamic incubus. So much for peace…

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Related: Iran, Syria

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