Missile strikes pounded Syrian military locations in scenes that were filmed and quickly posted on social media websites, while the voice of the person filming and some of those there could be heard yelling with every missile that would hit, or every fireball that would light up the darkness: Allahu Akbar... Allahu Akbar!!! (God is Great... God is Great!!!) The airstrikes are Israeli, the missiles American and the targets Syrian, but held by Bashar Al-Assad's regime. Most certainly, the attacks will at the end of the day be in favor of the forces opposed to the regime, which have been fighting for months and will persevere in their efforts to topple it, regardless of whether or not Israel were to develop its “seasonal" attacks and increase their rate and intensity. Prominent figures of the Free Syrian Arm" (FSA), leaders of “Islamist groups" and members of Syria's Muslim Brotherhood have mocked the absence of a reaction on the part of the regime to Israeli attacks which Syria has been exposed to before, and promoted the catchphrase “a lion upon us and a lamb at war" (“assad" is Arabic for “lion"), indulging in “ridiculing" the regime and turning the people against it. Yet the question that has arisen after the Israeli strikes this time is: do the revolutionaries of the Arab Spring have the right to seek help from enemies in order to topple their tyrannical regimes, or should they suffice themselves with the initiatives taken by such enemies?! As expected, quick reactions on the part of Syrian opposition forces and figures have focused on traditional aspects. There was thus talk of the regime not having fired a single bullet to liberate the Golan for decades, or of its constant use of boisterous rhetoric when speaking of Israel in conferences, forums and the media, while the relationship between Damascus and Tel Aviv has seemed stable ever since the end of the war of October 1973. They also “made fun" of the regime's repeated assertion after every Israeli attack that: “the response will come at a time set by Damascus, not by the enemy!!" Added to such talk this time was the theme of making use of Israel's behavior without supporting it, by promoting the notion that Israel has realized that Bashar Al-Assad's would soon be falling, and has thus resorted to getting rid of certain weapons so that they may not fall into the hands of the opposition when it comes to power!! This is on the basis that the Israeli strike that took place last January was a limited one in comparison with what happened at dawn yesterday, in terms of the intensity of the airstrikes, their effect and the facilities they had been targeting. Such a picture is also being painted in Egypt, albeit from a different perspective. Thus, talk of a role being played by the Hamas movement in arranging the escape of Muslim Brotherhood leaders and members on the day following the eruption of the Egyptian Revolution can be heard in courtrooms, on the background of a case being examined by the Ismailia Court of Appeal, in which is being tried a convict in a criminal case who broke out of the Wadi Natrun Prison, along with President Mohamed Morsi and a number of members of the Muslim Brotherhood's Guidance Bureau, in addition to other Brotherhood members, after an attack was carried out against the prison from the outside, led by Hamas members according to the testimony of witnesses, which resulted in thousands of other prisoners breaking out. This attack had taken place at the same time as attacks on other prisons, from some of which escaped Hamas activists as well as one prominent member of Hezbollah, all of whom were being tried in court under the former regime. Numerous reports have been filed with the Office of the Public Prosecutor demanding an investigation into the incident of the breakout of Morsi himself and of his colleagues in the Guidance Bureau, but they have all been obstructed and have not been referred to courts. Yet media coverage of the Ismailia case has stirred up debate over the fact that the Muslim Brotherhood sought help from “friends" during the events of the Egyptian Revolution, friends whose role remained unknown, or let us say obscured, as a result of interconnected circumstances during the Revolution. Regardless of the fact that Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood, and even the Hamas movement itself, have denied the veracity of this information, the proceeding of the trial in Ismailia, as well as the contents of the report of the fact-finding commission on the events of the Revolution, have included details about the “operation". But most important is the fact that revolutionary forces have considered the promotion of such information to represent a smear against the Revolution or an attempt to defame it. And that is the same point of view the Muslim Brotherhood has adopted to deny accusations of having sought help from friends. Meanwhile, other prominent figures of the Revolution have considered the issue to be connected to the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas, and perhaps even Hezbollah, taking advantage of the Revolution, which erupted for purely Egyptian reasons and at the hands of Egyptians who were seeking change, without realizing at the time that others had different goals which they achieved by using the Revolution. The question that now arises is about the feelings of Egyptian citizens who supported the Revolution, were glad to see the Mubarak regime fall, abided by the results of the presidential elections, and then discovered that Hamas had a role to play, even if a limited one, in toppling the Mubarak regime, and that the Muslim Brotherhood had sought help from friends, in one form or another, without the knowledge of the other revolutionary forces who had ignited and taken part in the Revolution, as well as of the millions of Egyptians who had taken to the streets and public squared and had remained there until Mubarak stepped down. They are the same feelings felt by Syrian citizens, who reject a regime that exercised tyranny, oppression and corruption for years, and wish to see it fall at the hands of Syrians, only to wake from their sleep to the sound of Israeli missiles pounding the regime's locations... A puzzling matter indeed, but the outcome at the end of the day remains the same. Indeed, Arab revolutions remain influential, but it seems that they alone do not topple regimes, as they inevitably seek help from friends... or enemies.
