“Assad is a bad, bad guy…”

That he sure is. The choice is between bad and badder in the Middle East. I think the Islamist rebels in Syria are the badder party, because Assad has his material condition to think of (he’s not even a Muslim), while the Alqaeda and MB affiliated rebels have no such considerations.

Even so, Assad, like Mubarak, could never hold forever—rare though it may be, the natural work of Mal’akh HaMavet can be relied upon if no other factor can. And then the same scenario of the rise of Islamic rule rears its ugly head. I’m no longer stressed about the rise of shariah rule to power in the Arab/Islamic world, as it’s a matter of time; all I care about is that Israel must be prepared the best to counter Islamic imperialist aggression when (when, not if) it attacks. That’s one of the major reasons why I oppose land concessions.

“…the Tehran-Damascus-Beirut axis (or more specifically the Ahmadinejad-Assad-Nasrallah axis)…”

I don’t think the axis would be broken by the fall of Assad, only rearranged. Iran and Hezbollah would have no problem striking an alliance against the “Zionist infidels” with a Sunni Al-Q or the MB in Syria, no more than they have a problem with supporting the Sunni Hamas in Gaza. Though Sunni and Shia are at each other’s throats normally, that doesn’t contradict their seeing eye to eye on the duty of jihad against the non-Muslim.

“Remember thou art mortal” is what a slave whispered in the ear of Roman generals in a chariot being given a triumph in Rome. I wish someone would say that to the Teleprompter-in-chief.

Better the Devil you know. Assad knows Syria lost against Israel every time they went up against each other, the general population and particularly those who would take over don’t.

Assad’s fear of failure is Israel’s greatest defence against war with Syria and the Status Quo is better than anything that could replace it, that’s a lesson to learn from the ‘Arab spring’.