* Netanyahu deputy slams Russia for arming Damascus
* Repeats call for military action
* Israel wary of turmoil in Arab neighbour
By Dan Williams
JERUSALEM, June 10 (Reuters) – A senior Israeli minister
accused Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Sunday of committing
genocide during his crackdown on a 15-month uprising, in an
unusually harsh censure of the Jewish state’s Arab neighbour.
Vice Prime Minister Shaul Mofaz also criticised Russia for
arming Damascus and repeated Israel’s demand for international
military intervention to topple Assad, akin to last year’s
campaign in Libya.
Israel has until recently been slow to call for Assad’s
fall, wary of worsening the turmoil in Syria – the two countries
are enemies but have been in a mostly stable stand-off for
decades.
With hourly media reports in Israel of Syrian civilian
deaths, public anger has been growing and Israeli officials have
been stepping up their criticism.
“A crime against humanity, genocide, is being conducted in
Syria today. And the silence of the world powers is contrary to
all human logic,” said Mofaz during an interview on Israel’s
Army Radio.
Foreign powers were “making do with flaccid condemnation”
rather than intervening to overthrow Assad, he added.
“Worse than that is the Russian conduct, which weakly
condemns the slaughter while continuing to arm Assad’s murderous
regime. Best-case, this is irresponsibility, and worst-case, it
is a partnership in the slaughter,” Mofaz said.
A longtime Syrian ally, Russia opposes outside intervention
against Damascus. Moscow has denied supporting any side in the
conflict or providing arms that could be used in a Syrian civil
war.
Russia says it would be open to Assad’s exit from power as
long as it was a result of an inclusive political process among
Syrians.
Mofaz, a former top general and political centrist who
joined Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s conservative
coalition government last month, said Israel had limited options
on Syria but had to lobby for international action.
“We need to enlist the West. We need our voice to be heard.
This slaughter is being carried out not far from Israel’s
border,” he said.
“We cannot get involved, for understandable reasons. But I
think that the West, led by the United States, has an interest
in guarding the threshold (so) genocide does not take place.”
Such language is especially loaded in Israel, which was
founded in part as a haven for survivors of the Holocaust.
Speaking separately on Israel Radio, Deputy Foreign Minister
Danny Ayalon said the Netanyahu government was prepared to help
Syrians who take refuge in Jordan and other countries with ties
to the Jewish state.
(Writing by Dan Williams; Editing by Andrew Heavens)
