RUTHFULLY YOURS

In the Department of Bottomless Cynicism, does anything match the treatment of Palestinians by their ostensible champions in the Arab world? In the latest example, Bashar Assad’s regime last week launched an assault on a Palestinian neighborhood in the Syrian port city of Latakia, and some 10,000 residents have fled, died, or gone missing. Will the United Nations now ask Judge Richard Goldstone to investigate?

The assault on Latakia, complete with naval shelling, is part of the regime’s broader effort to suppress five months of peaceful demonstrations against Mr. Assad’s misrule. Though Syria’s nearly 500,000 Palestinians are not citizens—they have been frozen into refugee status for 63 years to be used as pawns against Israel—they have suffered their share of the regime’s indignities and have been active in the protests. Now they’re in the regime’s gun sights.

All this has met with a certain amount of international protest. A spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called the regime’s assaults “unacceptable.” Turkey has wagged a stern finger at Mr. Assad, though it has yet to follow the lead of Saudi Arabia by withdrawing its ambassador from Damascus. President Obama finally came around to doing the right thing yesterday by calling for regime change in Damascus, only days after Hillary Clinton said that doing just that was “not going to be any news.” Mr. Obama deserves praise for superceding his Secretary of State, who seems to rate the influence and moral weight of the U.S. on a par with that of Vanuatu.

Meanwhile, Russia plans to go forward with arms sales to the regime, reminding everyone what the Administration achieved with its Moscow “reset.” Hamas, the Palestinian terrorist group long-headquartered in Damascus, recently broke up a small anti-Assad demonstration in the Gaza Strip. We also haven’t heard much by way of support for Latakia’s Palestinians from the usual suspects in the pro-Palestinian movement.

Compare this international reaction to what has happened in Latakia to the outrage after last year’s Turkish flotilla incident involving Israel. No wonder Mr. Assad has spent the past months thinking he can get away with anything.