Syrian dissident Ammar Abdulhamid offers some insights on the Damascus regime in Beirut's Daily Star.
[A]after a period of lying low, the Assads are re-emerging as one of the Middle East's chief backers of radical groups - Islamist or ultra-nationalist. The recent showdown with Israel over the fate of an abducted Israeli soldier is a case in point, as the kidnapping seems to have been instigated, if not orchestrated, by Hamas leaders residing in Damascus, where they live under the protection of the Assads. Together with the Syrian regime's continuing dabbling in Lebanon and its strengthened alliance with Iran, the Assads seem to be thumbing their noses at the international community…. Bashar can never truly be interested in a final resolution of Syria's outstanding foreign entanglements. Having to continuously manage outside crises is the only way for him and his family to maintain their grip on power. Adventurism, therefore, will remain a mainstay of Syrian foreign policy, no matter how suicidal it might seem at this time, considering the constantly changing geopolitical realities in the region. So, and in a typical fashion, Assad and the rest of his family will continue to up the ante in their confrontation with the international community.