Syria's new day

Assad's downfall brings new opportunities, plus new threats

For those of us who have covered war in the Middle East over the last 25 years, none could imagine what might finally bring an end to a half century of Assad rule in Syria: a coalition led by Islamic terrorists—one pledging not to annihilate but protect minority Christians, and with strategic help from a sworn enemy, Israel.

That’s what happened as Hayat Tahrir al-Sham militants launched from their base in Idlib early this month to take Aleppo, once the country’s largest city. Next they forced the Syrian army to stand down as they moved to Damascus, the capital. In under two weeks HTS by Dec. 8 had brought down the government of President Bashar al-Assad.

As Syrians poured into streets this week to celebrate, and tens of thousands of prisoners walked free from one of the world’s cruelest regimes, the sectarian divides that marked almost 14 years of civil war seemed to recede like Red Sea waters, miraculously.

“Everything you are afraid of is gone,” a medic reassured one shocked prisoner …