NETANYAHU’S ACTIONS AND OBAMA’S WORDS
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‘I am not in the habit of saying what we did or we didn’t do,” Benjamin Netanyahu told CBS’s “Face the Nation” Sunday, when he was asked if Israel had carried out a July 5 attack in Syria against a cache of Russian-made anti-ship missiles. “My policy,” the Prime Minister added, “is to prevent the transfer of dangerous weapons to Hezbollah and other terror groups.”
So Israel has red lines after all. Mr. Netanyahu’s non-denial amounts to confirmation that Israel has launched at least four attacks on Syrian targets this year. Previous targets include a convoy of surface-to-air missiles headed for Lebanon, and an arms depot near Damascus believed to contain Iranian ballistic missiles that could have brought Tel Aviv within Hezbollah’s range.
Now consider another set of red lines. “We have been very clear to the Assad regime but also to other players on the ground that a red line for us is, we start seeing a whole bunch of [chemical] weapons moving around or being utilized,” President Obama warned on August 20, 2012. “That would change my calculus. That would change my equation.”
In March, Mr. Obama stressed “we will not tolerate the use of chemical weapons against the Syrian people, or the transfer of those weapons to terrorists. The world is watching; we will hold you accountable.”
Or not. As everyone—most especially Bashar Assad—now knows, Mr. Obama has no red lines regarding Syria or chemical weapons. Even his belated policy change to deliver small arms to the opposition is bogged down in bureaucratic inertia and congressional resistance. Readers may or may not think the U.S. should involve itself in Syria, but serious powers cannot issue empty threats and not expect consequences.
In his CBS interview, Mr. Netanyahu was also asked when he would be prepared to take military action to stop Iran’s nuclear programs. “Well, I can tell you I won’t wait until it’s too late,” he replied. The Prime Minister has been saying this for nearly two years, perhaps waiting for the U.S. to act instead, but he is learning in Syria that Israel will have to enforce its own red lines.
A version of this article appeared July 16, 2013, on page A14 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: Red Lines in Syria, and Iran.
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