A new Hama on the Turkish border

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http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/MF15Ak03.html

TEL AVIV - In 1982, on orders by current Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's father, Hafez, the Syrian army destroyed much of the city of Hama and killed somewhere between 10,000 and 40,000 people. The memory of that Muslim Brotherhood uprising and the government massacre is so strong in Syria that arguably it was a crucial factor in rekindling the current unrest after some 70 demonstrators were killed in Hama 10 days ago. <1>

Now, the town of Jisr al-Shoughour seems set on becoming the new Hama - "a" new Hama, if we believe much of what is being written and said about the situation in Syria, with other cities to follow. It does not mean that the comparison is realistic - all other discrepancies aside, the town with its approximately 50,000 inhabitants is no comparison to Hama, the fourth-largest city in Syria - but then again, leading Western ethicists of the past few


decades have taught us not to compare numbers of victims.

Besides, more powerful symbols have been created with much less grounding in reality, and Hama is a symbol before all else: a symbol, to quote former British foreign secretary Malcolm Rifkind, of "the single deadliest act by any Arab government against its own people in the modern Middle East". Specifically for Syrians, "deadly" might be a gross understatement: words such as the most brutal, cruel, and unjust act come to mind.