" . . . we always wanted [Syrian President] Bashar Assad to go . . .
September 22, 2013
Israel's outgoing ambassador to the U.S., Michael Oren, in an interview with the Jerusalem Post, says his country prefers Al Qaeda to Bashar al Assad.
Initially, we were keeping a very low profile; I haven’t appeared in the press for a few weeks, with the exception of very carefully crafted and calibrated messages. The initial message about the Syrian issue was that we always wanted [Syrian President] Bashar Assad to go, we always preferred the bad guys who weren’t backed by Iran to the bad guys who were backed by Iran.
In assessing dangers to Israel, Oren tells the Post,
. . . the greatest danger to Israel was by the strategic arc that extends from Tehran [Iran] to Damascus [Syria] , to Beirut [Lebanon].
See map of Tehran, Damascus, Beirut and Israel.
Read more . . . [The Jerusalem Post]