As William Hague said on Wednesday, if it happened, it was a shocking escalation in the Syrian conflict — and the world agreed.
The news that Bashar al-Assad’s forces almost certainly used chemical weapons against rebel-held areas of Damascus prompted an immediate call for a United Nations inspection of the affected area from Britain, France and the US, as well as the Arab League and EU.
The problem for Israel is that condemnation, outrage and a letter to the UN is nowhere near enough. Out of sheer necessity, Israeli intelligence agencies have led the world in the identification of Assad’s use of chemical weapons — and in doing something about it, with at least two air strikes on Syrian chemical weapons sites in the past year.
It is easy to understand Israel’s fears: if such weapons were to fall into the hands of the largely jihadi rebel forces in Syria, the danger would be imminent. Jerusalem would be within 100 miles of a missile that could inflict gruesome suffering on a large scale.
