The Syrian opposition coalition has condemned Wednesday's air raids by Israel as an attack on

Syria's sovereignty.

But, in a statement, the Syrian National Coalition also criticised the hypocrisy of the Syrian government for denouncing the raid while at the same time launching air strikes against its own civilians.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/middle-east-live/2013/feb/01/syria-us-un-russia-opposition-talks-live

The fact is that Syria's air force was apparently 'otherwise occupied' at the time of the Israeli air strike. Too bad Syria's planes were not available to defend the country rather than its dictator. It brings back an article from the BBC a few months ago.

Pity the Syrian people. They had been given to believe that fighter jets in the arsenal of the state - those Russian-made MIGs they once viewed with pride - were there for the stand-off with Israel.

Now they know better. The runs over Aleppo, the bombings of Idlib, have laid bare the truth. It is no accident that the founder of this regime, Hafez al-Assad, emerged from the ranks of the air force, which is not often an incubator of coup-makers. There would come a day, the masters of this minority regime doubtless knew, when fighter jets would be used at home.

Israel was always the alibi, the declared enemy. But the Sunni-majority country the Alawites conquered was destined to awake one day, and the rulers prepared for a day of reckoning. The cruel, all-out war between the dictatorship and the vast majority of the population was in the script all along.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-19882416