Israel, Syria, and the Proportionality of Outrage

[Mudhammam]

As some of you may know from a related thread in the Atheism section, my opinions regarding the current conflict in Gaza are marked with a high degree of passion. This is true for a lot of people, on both sides of the conflict, who are not directly affected by the events in Gaza. My rationale for the intensity I feel about the situation largely stems from the fact that American politics are so financially and religiously tied into the state of Israel, as such that American tax-payers are to some extent directly funding the military operations responsible for so much of the destruction currently being inflicted, not to mention strongly and unanimously supporting a government whom I believe has kept 1.8 million people virtually imprisoned for decades. Though I am deeply resentful of all nation powers that trample upon the weak, whether it be American prisons or predator drones, Israeli occupations and missile strikes, North Korean concentration camps, execution squads, and almost everything else unimaginably sadistic, along with pretty much every powerful faction on the face of the earth that currently or has at some point existed, I'm naturally more inclined to feel more cause in vocalizing my antipathy towards USG policies that further this violence and hate. Israel, in many ways, is basically an extension of U.S. interests and in various instances rightly viewed as part in parcel with Western Imperialism.

I am, however, persuaded that anti-Zionism must not be conflated with anti-Semitism, and I'm somewhat disturbed by anti-Semitic sentiments that seem to display their ugly gaze beneath the veil of anti-Zionism, granted they're perhaps fueled by the latter (and toxic religious beliefs). Considering the history of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, it's no secret that tensions often run particularly high when it comes to the treatment of Jews and Muslims in traditionally Christian Europe, or Jews and Christians in the Middle-East, or anti-Muslim attitudes prevalent in the state of Israel evidenced by the behavior towards their much weaker and poorer neighbors. I have observed many Muslims speak of Israel in terms that could easily be interpreted as anti-Semitic towards the Jewish people on a broader scale, and that is both disturbing and revealing.

This brings me to Syria. I read today that over 180,000 people have been killed, which, not to make light of the Gaza conflict, makes its 1,300 person body count appear measly in comparison (granted one has been going on for a few years, the other a few weeks). I'm somewhat embarrassed that I have given so much attention to the Israel-Palestine situation and have largely ignored the genocide in Syria. From the standpoint of my humanity, this is inexcusable, though as an American it makes more sense. For a Muslim outside either of those two countries, however, I'm bit baffled at the intensity I perceive in those criticizing Israel and not placing a much greater emphasis on the Muslims slaughtered in Syria. As one commentator put it, Assad must be thinking, "Thank Allah I'm not Jewish."

This brings me to my questions:
Is my perception of the disproportionality of outrage displayed by Muslims towards the Israeli government and not the Syrian government a myth of my own making or is that a legitimate observation?
If this is the case, does it have more to do with the anti-Semitism that exists within the Muslim world and the Zionist cause simply inflames that?
Am I justified for feeling more of an affinity to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, as an American, than I do towards the Syrian civil war?
Is it because the Syrian civil war involves multiple grotesque factions that are more or less on an equal footing while Israel-Palestine is a true example of an immensely exaggerated Goliath vs. David?

[Thumpalumpacus]

This brings me to my questions:
Is my perception of the disproportionality of outrage displayed by Muslims towards the Israeli government and not the Syrian government a myth of my own making or is that a legitimate observation?
If this is the case, does it have more to do with the anti-Semitism that exists within the Muslim world and the Zionist cause simply inflames that?
Am I justified for feeling more of an affinity to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, as an American, than I do towards the Syrian civil war?
Is it because the Syrian civil war involves multiple grotesque factions that are more or less on an equal footing while Israel-Palestine is a true example of an immensely exaggerated Goliath vs. David?

I think you're seeing a real phenomenon, not imagining things; Muslims may well be distraught about Syria, but they are outraged by Israel's actions, and not just in Gaza. I don't doubt that anti-Semitism plays a role in it (though Arabs are Semites as well, so perhaps anti-Jewish would be more accurate). I've been much more concerned about the civil war in Syria than the conflict between Israelis and Gazans, perhaps because the conflict has been going on so long that I'm inured to passionate feelings about it.

Syria, on the other hand, is a pretty important state in the region in terms of geographical location. Watching its factional civil war alongside the incipient civil war in Iraq is something I find much more worrisome, insofar as it threatens broad swathes of fallout: possibly a large fundamentalist Muslim state bordering two of our allies, the possiblity of that state having control over a significant portion of the world's oil reserves, and having Turkey destabilized by the formation of a Kurdish state. I don't know that any or all of those results will come to pass, but I see very little possibility for a "happy ending" there, from our perspective.

I'm somewhat embarrassed that I have given so much attention to the Israel-Palestine situation and have largely ignored the genocide in Syria.

Forgive the niggle, but what's going on in Syria is not genocide, but rather civil war.