Syria's Border Blackmail May Backfire

Pity Ali Shaaban for the hypocrisy that surrounded the reactions to his death. From Hezbollah we heard that the cameraman’s killers had to be punished, even though the party has no intention of seeing its Syrian allies disciplined. But Shaaban was a Shiite, so something had to be said. Then there were the reactions from March 14. The coalition exploited the fact that a Shiite had been gunned down by Syrians to drive a wedge between Hezbollah and its own community. This was blatant and indecent, but there you have Lebanese politics today.

The regime of Bashar Assad is anxious about its borders. Shaaban’s killing came on the same day that Syrian soldiers were ordered to fire into Turkey. The aim is to blackmail, to warn that if the Syrian conflict becomes a proxy war, it may spread to Syria’s neighbors.