From The Australian. Here's what's on the front. I'm Christinamiot. It's Tuesday, December tenth. The former Israeli Foreign Minister Sippylivney says strong leadership is the antidote to antisemitism. Her comments followed the establishment of an antisemitism task Force by Prime Minister Anthony Albanesi. He capitulated to three days of demands to take decisive action after Melbourne's Great Synagogue was firebomb plus.
Peter Dutton declared the Coalition will deport migrants who are deemed antisemitic if the Opposition gets up at the next election. That exclusive interview with Sippylivney is live right now at the Australian dot com dot au. It took Syrian rebels just twenty four hours to bring half a century of tyranny to a stunning conclusion. The world watches and waits to see who feels the massive political vacuum created by
the end of the Assad regime. That's today's story. On Sunday evening, the streets of Southwest Sydney, the city's Syrian communities lit up. They were celebrating the fall of a ruthless regime. And the demise of a dictator who ruled Syria for more than five decades. For some residents who spoke to the Australians reporters Lea Mendez and Joanna Panagopolis, it was a moment of jubilation.
So because the Catafrinda not in jail, because twenty four million CIM people actually are unjured.
Mohammad al Humwi says he plans to return to his home country for the first time in four decades. But for others like Assyrian refugee Simon Shaheen, it's a time of fear, interrepidation.
So when there's no government, no system in place to protect the innocent, it becomes like wilderness. It's a huge political vacuum always going to fill it. It's going to be insurgents and rebels who are radical and extremist mentality and agendas, and they are armed to the teeth.
Well Christian. It really means a new balance of power in the Middle East because Syria has been a stalwart companion ally of the so called Actus of Evil, which is between Hezbollah, Iran and Russia, who have been its three major allies.
Karen Stewart is the Australian's chief international correspondent.
So, in other words, by Syria collapsing in a spectacular way, it has Assyrian regime. It's really robbed those three entities of their power in the Middle East, and that's a huge shift in the balance of power.
If you tuned into Syria's state television station in the early hours of Sunday morning, you'd have heard a familiar tune. It was Tchaikowski's Swan Lake playing on loop. The office of President Bashah al Assad said he was tied up with constitutional tasks. In reality, he was on the lamb his wife and children in tow as the regime his family spent fifty three years building crumbled.
Syria's government has collapsed after a lightning offensive by rebel forces over the past week. People are celebrating the end to the fifty year a sad rule in the streets. After the capital Damascus fell, rebel.
Fighters took up officers in the Syrian capital's lavish presidential palace and gleefully looted a fleet of luxury cars from Assad's private collection. No they unlocked dungeon prisons, freeing those held captive for years under the regime. Civilians poured into the streets of Damascus, waving flags and chanting in victory, and a week after rebel forces first swept into Aleppo, the leaders who toppled this brutal regime in less than
twenty four hours joined in the celebrations. The ousted president re emerged in Russia on morning, having been granted political asylum by the Kremlin.
He really was a truly brutal dictator. He didn't start
out necessarily being like that. He was actually an eye doctor, but of course he got catapulted into that position succeeding his father after his elder brother died, and he became harder and harder and harder as a dictator as the years went on, and the big threat to him of was, of course, the Arab Spring in twenty eleven, where pro democracy protesters looked like they might topple him, and he came back very very hard, got his allies Russia and
Iran and Hezbollah to crush the resistance movement, but he used chemical weapons on his own people. Some three hundred thousand people arrestimated to have died during that conflict between twenty eleven and twenty eight, and he was one of the most riddle dictators in the world. And even though there's a lot of uncertainty about what happens now in Syria, and you know, what are these rebels going to actually be?
Like?
I think there's general celebration in the West and certainly in Syria that this despot has been toppled.
Coming up, what this historic defeat means for the Middle East. The demise of the Assad regime isn't a story about good triumphing over evil. There are several groups with a vested interest in what happens in Syria, but no clear winners. Chief among them is Higher to Rear Al Sham or HTS, hardest group from northwest Syria with links to the terrorist group Al Qaeda. They're responsible for mounting the stunning resurgence
that ultimately led to Assad's downfall. There's Russia, which has air and naval bases dotted along Syria's Mediterranean coast, but was otherwise occupied and failed to send back up as Aleppo, Hamma and Homs fell. In the southwest, Lebanon's proxy militia, Hezbollah, has lost a powerful ally and the land that connection affords it to the north Turkey has been given an opening to expand its influence in the region by backing
the ascendant rebel groups like HTS in Iraq. There are concerns the Syrian revolt could inspire similar action by Sunni Muslims, and there are the Kurdish and Alawite Syrian factions whose fight for survival is not yet done. Further afield, the United States has already taken steps to prevent the Korea of a new extremist Islamic state, conducting air strikes on ISIS camps in central Syria.
We're cleared eyed about the fact that ISIS will try to take advantage of the vacuum to re establish its capabilities to create a safe haven.
We will not let that happen.
And in Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanya, who took credit for the chain of events he says ultimately led to Asad's demise.
This is a historic day for the Middle East.
It's set off a chain reaction of all those who want to free themselves from this tyranny and its oppression.
No one knows how this group will govern. This is a massive vacuum of power. I mean they controlled a very small area up in the northwest of the country very very different to control all of Syria. And what I think is really interesting in the last twenty four hours, Kristian is we've seen the nations around Syria really take
steps to protect their own interests. We've seen Israel go into the demilitarized zone between Syria and Israel that was created back in nineteen seventy four and move beyond that, moving its troops actually into Syrian soil. And they're saying this is a temporary move, but they are doing it because they don't want to be threatened on their border by a militant group. And then on the other side, we've had the Americans who've got a thousand troops in
eastern Syria. They've been bombing Islamic State camps in eastern Syria, and the message they're trying to say there is don't let Islamic State join with this new rebel group that's taken over Syria. And on top of that, the Iraqis have closed their border and the Turkish forces had a skirmish with the Kurdish forces who are up in the northeast of the country. So, if you like, everyone suddenly reacting to this incredible victory by their eble forces, by
protecting their own interests. And I think that goes to your original question. No one knows exactly what is going to.
Happen next, and to that point, this is an one of those questions that likely doesn't yet have an answer. But there is a conflict already raging in the Middle East that is primarily Israel and Hamas in Gaza. How does that play into all of this? Is that dynamic likely to shift now or is this likely to become part of a wider conflict.
Well, it's interesting because Israel is now conducting some air strikes as well in Syria to destroy some of the military apparatus that the Asarz regim had, and that's to make sure that this new rebel group doesn't get those armaments and if it was inclined to attack Israel, that it can't attack Israel. So Israel is trying to make sure that this new front in Syria doesn't become another front in its own conflicts against Kamas in Gaza and
of course Hezbela in Lebanon. And of course the reason why Asades didfall in part was because Hesbella backed him well. And now Hesbela is completely and utterly frozen in Lebanon. It's a ceasefire agreement and so there's not going to be any movement on that front. So I think Israel will now try and shore up Syria and then it will pay attention to Hamasin Gaza, which is really the biggest front it has at the moment.
Caaron Stewart is The Australian's chief international correspondent. This story is developing quickly. You can read our comprehensive reporting and analysis anytime at the Australian dot com dot au