Syrian President Bashar al-Assad famously declared in an interview: “How can you say al-Qaeda doesn’t have an air force? They have the Israeli air force.” “It’s very clear. Because whenever we make advances in some place, they attack in order to undermine the army,” Assad said last year. Yalibnan.com reports: “Putin is the big Satan, Assad is the little Satan, Israel is now a friend, they help us”, declared Ala, lying on his hospital bed, one leg blown away, the other pinned and swathed in bandages. He had been manning an anti-aircraft gun when Russian warplanes struck, a missile killing three fellow fighters near him. The 22-year-old Syrian rebel, a former history student at Damascus University, had been knocked unconscious by the blast. He woke up five days later at the Ziv Medical Centre, in Safed, across the Israeli border. “This one was cut off by a nurse who came to my home,” said Ala, patting the stump. “We don’t have many doctors in Deraa. I would have lost my other leg if I had not been brought here. We were taught to think everything was bad about Israel, but they have been good to me and many other revolutionaries.” [...]