Beirut may be the only city in the region where you can meet — on the same street or in adjacent cafes — representatives of the two parties involved in the conflict in Syria and hear from them concrete information, rather than mere readings and analyses. For example, the Israeli air raid that targeted Syrian sites near Damascus on Jan. 30 is interpreted in two accounts from Beirut: Israel carried out a raid against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, or Israel raided on his behalf!

News reports, especially in the Western press, discussing the Israeli air raid on the outskirts of Damascus raise the same general questions: Has the Assad regime crossed a red line — or almost crossed one — prompting Tel Aviv to deter it? Did the Assad regime cross a red line by possessing non-conventional weapons, or by attempting to transfer such weapons to Hezbollah? Or by allowing Iran to transfer weapons to this Lebanese Shiite organization?

Both supporters and opponents of the Syrian regime who are based in Beirut and active in political and media discussions rule out these possibilities, and consider them secondary in the search for reasons for the raid. They provide contradictory analyses reinforced with credible arguments.

Pro-regime Lebanese sources who have visited Damascus say that the Syrian officials consider the air raid on Damascus to be a message to Washington and the West. According to these sources, some Damascus officials saw the raid as a fiery protest message by the authorities in Tel Aviv against the settlement proposals for the Syrian crisis coming from Western capitals. Syrian officials believe that Israel is very upset about the meetings taking place in Dublin and Munich, and about the statements being made by Syrian opposition officials, including Ahmad Moaz al-Khatib and Haytham Manna, and their acceptance of dialogue initiatives with the regime. The sources add that Israel is especially upset about the Western sponsorship in general, and US sponsorship in particular, of this direction.