Aletho News

The Ongoing Saga of Bad Websourcing: Does Al-Monitor Even Have Editors?

By Nima Shirazi | Wide Asleep in America | January 31, 2013

It is becoming increasingly obvious that prolific Israeli commentator Meir Javedanfar is unaware of the purpose of hyperlinks.

In his January 30 Al-Monitor article (which incidentally needs some major copy editing, but didn’t get it), Javedanfar writes, “Iran is also using Syria as a proxy to weaken the Syrian opposition forces, which it sees as the allies of the West, Saudi Arabia and even Israel.”

The link on “Israel” leads to a PressTV article wherein no Iranian makes any such claim. It just quotes the Israeli President Shimon Peres as supporting the Syrian opposition. No loony Persian conspiracy theories or official statements by Iranian political or military leaders.  So why does Javedanfar use this particular link when the claim he makes is about what Iran “sees as…”?  For the answer, go here.

Furthermore, that the US, European countries and Arab Gulf states are not only “allies of” but literally funding, equipping and arming the Syrian opposition is common knowledge that doesn’t need to be pawned off as some crazy Iranian allegation. It’s also easily accessible information. See all those links? Yeah, it’s that easy.

One additional point: Javedanfar’s use of the term “proxy” to describe Iran’s relationship with Syria is bizarre and demonstrates either a lack of understanding about what that word means or about how civil wars work.  A “proxy” is a subordinate agent or organization that takes its cues from and whose interests are beholden to a more powerful, external benefactor.  It doesn’t make much sense to refer to a sovereign government (especially one that is itself embroiled in a bloody civil war), rather than a non-governmental organization or group, as a proxy of another sovereign government.

Yes, there are exceptions to this – for example, nations like Palau, the Marshall Islands, and Micronesia are often used as U.S. proxies during United Nations General Assembly votes against Israeli accountability and the implementation of international law in Palestine.  But those nations don’t have interests of their own in that particular region; also, they are party to the Compact of Free Association with the United States, which mandates American military protection, financial assistance and economic provisions for these tiny Pacific Island states in return for diplomatic fealty (the nations vote alongside the U.S. and Israel in the U.N. more than 90% of the time, for example) and, more importantly, essentially wide-open U.S. military access.

As per the agreement, established in 1986 (and 1994 for Palau as an independent entity), these protectorates – which were previously under American trusteeship since the end of World War II – must grant the U.S. military exclusive access to their territories and provide land for military bases, not to mention accommodating the constant presence of U.S. military recruiters who have long preyed upon the poor local communities with promises of economic opportunity.  In 2010, the Christian Science Monitor reported that “while some Micronesians see the US military as their ticket out, many here are poorly informed of the risks. The FSM has suffered more casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan per capita than any US state, and has lost soldiers at a rate five times the US average. Some recruits sign on unaware the US is fighting two wars.”

But I digress.

Javedanfar calls the Assad-led Syrian government a proxy of Iran, which Iran is using against Syrian opposition forces which means that the Syrian government is doing Iran’s bidding by fighting against armed rebel militias in its own country than are trying to overthrow it.  Huh? The Syrian government may be getting support – both financial and military – from Iran, but that doesn’t make it a lackey of Iran, which is what the term proxy signifies.  It is obviously in Assad’s own interest to oppose forces seeking to topple his dictatorial reign; he doesn’t need Iran’s say-so to do what he’s doing.

Yet, by Javedanfar’s reading, the conflict is really between Iran and Syrian opposition forces.  The Syrian government, according to him, is merely a pawn in Iran’s game against Israel and the West.  This both obfuscates and confuses the issue.  (The term proxy itself is overused when discussing allegiances and alliances in the region; both Hezbollah and Hamas are routinely referred to as Iranian proxies yet the fact that they don’t have their interests or actions dictated to them by the Iranian government as they are indigenous groups with their own goals and responsibilities.)

While it’s obvious what Javedanfar is trying to say – in the assumed power struggle over influence in the Middle East, Iran and the West/Gulf alliance are each protecting their own interests in Syria (duh) – but that’s not really what he wrote.  The problem here may be poor writing skills, but isn’t that where an editor should step in and clarify?

One last thing: Javedanfar suggests that to prevent the alleged Syrian stockpile of chemical weapons from “falling into the hands of al-Qaeda” were “an extremist offshoot” of the group to seize power after Assad’s supposed fall, those weapons should be transferred to…wait for it…Iran.

Why, you may ask? Because Javedanfar states that, Iran having chemical weapons is “infinitely better” than al-Qaeda having them, provided that is “the only other viable option.”  Sure, ok.  But he never explains why that would be the only option or points out that the backers of criminal al-Qaeda-affiliated elements in the Syrian opposition are the very states he says are duking it out with Iran in a proxy war.  How could Iran getting chemical weapons be part of the end-game in Syria as far as the West, Israel and Saudi Arabia are concerned?

It can’t and won’t be.  Which makes Javedanfar’s commentary not only pointless, but just plain weird.

What he’s really saying, though, is that he wants Syria’s alleged chemical weapons stockpile to get as far away from him, his family and his friends who are living in Israel as possible.  This is understandable, of course, but does it really necessitate a prominently displayed opinion piece on Al-Monitor that no editor took a look at before it was published?

Related article

• Iran Threatens Attack on Israel Through Syrian Proxy (israelnationalnews.com)

February 3, 2013 - Posted by aletho | Deception | Iran, Israel, Marshall Islands, Saudi Arabia, Syria