The fall of Bashar Assad in Syria has prompted understandable elation at the departure of a tyrant responsible for the killing of some 600,000 of his citizens.

The revelations of his gruesome prison and torture chambers, and the evidence emerging of the hideous way that so many were treated, can only arouse horror, revulsion and pity.

The Assad regime was also a menace to Israel. The Syrian route was essential for transporting Iranian weapons to Hezbollah in Lebanon, while Tehran set up weapons production centers on Syrian soil.