Shakespeare and the Syrian civil war

I think or I hope that for all of us it is familiar what is going on in Syria. The horrible stories from the news have informed us about the terrible situation that the civil war has brought to millions of people. It all began in 2011, when nonviolent protest inspired by earlier revolutions in Egypt and Tunisia rose up to challenge decades of dictatorship, corruption and violence. However, the government responded in the most violent way, killing activists and their families, kidnapping and torturing. The troops of the "government" opened fire on protest and finally civilians started shooting back.  The Syrian army positioned across the country and civilians organized rebel groups.  That is how the civil war started.  Political science, James Fearon of Stanford University, has said that Syria’s civil war will last at least another decade.  Foreign powers have supported different sides and the United Nations has persuaded to negotiate without success.

Now, in relation to Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice something quite curious occurred on August, when the Syrian Parliament appears to have quoted part of Shylock’s famous speech to the UK MPs (The UK public elects Members of Parliament) in a try to convince them to not take military action against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

http://www.cityam.com/blog/1377770719/syrian-parliament-invokes-strange-shakespearean-allegory-letter-uk-mps

In the second paragraph of a five-page letter, Mohammad Jihad al-Laham, speaker of the people's assembly of Syria, writes:

"We write to you as fathers and mothers, as members of families and communities really not so different to yours. We write to you as fellow human beings for, if you bomb us, shall we not bleed?"

Probably the idea of the Syrian parliament was to show Syria to the UK MPs as “the Jew” Even though Syria has been an example of religious tolerance. Prior to the 2011, more than 87 percent of Syrians ‘agreed’ or ‘strongly agreed’ that they always treat people of other religious ideas with respect. 

 I think that the idea of the letter was to convince British members of parliament with one of the most recognized English writers of all times, perhaps with those words they will understand the pain and suffering that Syrian people  have lived  as Shylock lived as a discriminated Jew in 16th century.  However something is in my mind that I cannot understand. We know that Shylock was looking for revenge, he was the bad guy of the play, but in the end he was seemed as a victim, at least for me. Did the Syrian parliament try to show themselves as victims of a cruel war, or as victims looking for revenge? What do you think?