Hanna Batatu and the Syrian regime

I hate the argument by the supporters of the Syrian regime to the effect that the Syrian regime has supported resistance against Israel.  My mentor Hanna Batatu has a response to that (in his article in MEJ about the underlying causes of the dominance of the Asad regime): he would argue that the regime may do something that is in the national interests but that is due to doing something that is in the regime's interest but that it happens to ALSO be in the national interest.  So the Syrian regime fought resistance to Israel, when it was in its regime interest, and also supported resistance to Israel when it was in the interest of the regime.  The determinant is always: the interest of the regime.