Report: Syria’s New Leadership "Celebrated" October 7 Massacre

Is al-Sharaa the “moderate” he purports to be?

Israel deploys in Golan buffer zone with Syria, girding for post-Assad regime chaos. (The Times of Israel)

A new transitional government in Syria, sworn in Saturday, is described by an AP report as “religiously and ethnically mixed.”

The 23-member cabinet includes one woman, a social affairs and labor minister described as “a Christian activist and vocal opponent of [former President Assad].” It also includes an education minister identified as “a Damascus-based Syrian Kurd.”

In a speech, Syria’s new President Ahmed al-Sharaa stated: “The formation of a new government today is a declaration of our joint will to build a new state.”

Al-Sharaa—leader of the Al-Qaeda offshoot HTS (Hayat Tahrir al-Sham), whose forces streamed down from northern Syria in early December to overthrow the Assad regime—is eager to give the impression that his new government will be pluralist, tolerant, and respectful of human rights.

And as MEMRI (the Israel-based Middle East Media Research Institute) notes, his charm offensive has been working so far:

Since [HTS’s] rebranding of itself as the new Syrian government, its administration representatives have met with senior U.S. diplomats and British officials, the French, German, Italian, Spanish, Norwegian, Dutch, and Greek foreign ministers, as well as EU Commissioner Hadja Lahbib. They have spoken by phone with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and received congratulations from Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. The Czech Republic has reopened its embassy in Damascus, and Syrian Jews have even returned to visit and US Jewish groups have diverged from Israel in support for US policy on the new Syria.

Seemingly, al-Sharaa’s PR effort took a major hit earlier in March when HTS forces massacred anywhere from a thousand to three thousand (depending on assessments) Syrian Alawis, members of the sect—reviled by many Syrian Sunnis—on which the Assad regime based much of its power.

Yet, as Daniel Pipes points out:

The public response...? Virtual silence. No marches in the Western capitals, no encampments at universities. And Western governments? Canberra “condemns the recent horrific violence in Syria’s coastal region” and is “deeply concerned by UN reports that many civilians from the Alawite community were summarily executed.” Washington “condemns the radical Islamist terrorists, including foreign jihadis, that murdered people in western Syria in recent days.” The UN denounces “harrowing violations and abuses.”

Condemnations are necessary but not sufficient….

Israel, for its part, stands apart from other Western governments in remaining deeply suspicious of al-Sharaa’s new Syria, both before the massacre of Alawis and, all the more so, after it. Israel, wary of being attacked from the former, now-abandoned UN buffer zone in southern Syria, has not only set up military outposts there but relentlessly bombed military assets of the old Assad regime—including ships, airports, radar and air defense system, weapons stockpiles, and more—to keep them out of al-Sharaa’s hands.

For Israel and anybody else willing to open their eyes, distrust of al-Sharaa’s new regime can only be reinforced by a new exposé from the abovementioned MEMRI.

It turns out that, just a year and a half ago, al-Sharaa’s HTS reacted to Hamas’s murderous rampage in southern Israel with “celebration.”

As MEMRI details:

On October 7, 2023, the day of the Hamas massacre in Israel, and in the month that followed, senior political, military, and religious figures from [HTS] came out in full support of the attack. This support took the form of multiple declarations of jihad against Israel, to include large-scale suicide attacks against it and its supporters and "filthy Jews" around the world, and for the murder of Israeli leaders. HTS officials said that the battle to destroy Israel should shed blood and sever limbs....

Among several other examples, on October 8 an HTS “chief religious official” named Abu ‘Abdallah al-Shami posted a video of a Mauritanian cleric who said: "The ummah must participate with blood and body parts in the defense of Palestine.... [Their] blood must flow together with the blood of the people of our nation in Palestine, and [their] body parts must mix with [Palestinians'] body parts. The Islamic ummah must play a part in repelling the aggression and defend the Palestinian nation."

On October 27, al-Shami himself wrote: "Oh Allah, attack the Jews and those allied with them.... Lower their flags, kill their leaders, defeat their crowds, disperse their unity, thwart their efforts, foil their plans, make their actions fail, curse them and humiliate them, bring calamities on them, take revenge against them, and make Gaza their graveyard."

On October 7 itself, another HTS cleric called on his Telegram channel: “Oh Allah, grant those who wage jihad for your sake in Gaza victory over Your enemy and theirs, and give them a clear conquest.... Guide them to Your straight path and to what You love and are pleased with."

For now, the revamped, serenely smiling, suit-and-tie-wearing President Ahmed al-Sharaa badly wants Western largess to rebuild his civil-war-devastated, poverty-stricken Syria. But there is a strong risk that in their overeagerness and gullibility, Western leaders will help him create a—very likely Turkish-backed—Sunni-jihadist fulcrum of terror and war.