Does Israel really fear Jihad terrorism from a post-Assad Syria?
By Maidhc Ó Cathail
The Passionate Attachment
June 29, 2012
According to an article yesterday in Ynet, the Israeli military fears that “global Jihad terrorists will launch attacks from Syria” if President Bashar Assad’s regime falls. The Israeli newspaper reported:
Army officials are not ruling [sic] a situation whereby terrorists will take advantage of the chaos that may follow a regime change in Damascus to seize control of the border region, as was the case in the Sinai Peninsula after Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak was overthrown.
Over the past few months the 36th Armored Division (Ga’ash), which is in charge of security along the border, has been gearing for a number of possible scenarios, including a cross-border attack by global jihad, which is operating in Syria against Assad’s regime.
The IDF fears the Horan region, near the border with Israel, will become a “no man’s land” and a hotbed of terrorism. Military officials are not ruling out the possibility of rocket fire from Syria and attempts to kidnap Israeli soldiers and civilians.
But if Israel is so concerned about global Jihad terrorists getting a foothold in Syria, then why is its American lobby leading the push for regime change in Damascus? Anyone who has been paying the slightest attention to websites such as the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Foreign Policy Initiative or Foundation for Defense of Democracies over the past year and a half knows how fervently pro-Israelis have been urging Washington to topple Assad.
To cite but one example, in November last year Foreign Policy Initiative and Foundation for Defense of Democracies jointly issued a discussion paper that outlined “policy options for the United States and like-minded nations to further assist the anti-regime Syrian opposition.” Entitled “Towards a Post-Assad Syria,” the paper advocated imposing “crippling sanctions” on the regime and providing assistance to opposition groups, including no-fly/no-go zones.
Foreign Policy Initiative co-founder Bill Kristol also heads the Emergency Committee for Israel, which specializes in producing videos attacking any politician, including President Obama, it deems to be insufficiently supportive of the Jewish state. Unless Kristol et al. are pursuing an agenda on Syria opposed by Tel Aviv — which is most unlikely — then why have they been promoting a policy that the IDF says will lead to global Jihad terrorists launching attacks on Israel? Could they be that stupid? Or could it be that Israeli strategists welcome the chaos that its army officials supposedly fear?
“…then why have they been promoting a policy that the IDF says will lead to global Jihad terrorists launching attacks on Israel? Could they be that stupid?
Very possibly.
Anthony Lawson
June 29, 2012 at 3:44 pm
Pretense
Osiris
June 29, 2012 at 5:42 pm
Anthony,
I doubt it very much. As I put it in “Kristol Clear: The Source of America’s Wars“:
Maidhc Ó Cathail
June 30, 2012 at 7:00 am
Israel is not afraid of Syrian Muslim Brotherhood. In fact, Moulhem Droubi, the Muslim Brotherhood representative in Paris attended an Israeli-sponsored meeting in Paris last year. The meeting was attended by 200 people representing none of the Syrian groups calling for reforms in Syria – the ‘Democratic change in Syria’. The meeting was organized by La Regle du Jeu (The Rule of the Game) magazine and website which is headed by Zionist Jew Bernard-Henri Levy. The other Zionist Jews who attended the meeting included Bernard Kouchner, former French foreign minister, Frederik Ansel, a member of Israel’s ruling Likud Party, Alex Goldfarb, former Knesset member and adviser to Israeli defense minister Ehud Barak and Andre Glucksmann, an Islamophobe French writer.
It’s believed the MB and other pro-Saudi and Turkish rebel groups have made a committment that the new government will recognize Israel and distant itself from Hizbullah and Iran.
http://rehmat1.com/2011/07/08/israeli-conference-on-syria/
rehmat1
June 30, 2012 at 6:28 pm
Hello Maidhc,
I didn’t dismiss Kristol and the neocons as fools. The question was: “Could they be that stupid?”
History tells us that many of those who were able to reach the pinnacles of power denied to others show no in-built immunity against doing something stupid. Neither would be classed as fools, but both Napoleon and Hitler attacked Russia at inauspicious times, which was very stupid of them.
Anthony Lawson
July 1, 2012 at 4:44 am
More evidence of the Israel lobby being keener for regime change than Washington in the New York Times:
Maidhc Ó Cathail
July 1, 2012 at 12:41 pm
Maidhc’s excellent work is resonating in the French-speaking world–scroll down to Paul-Eric Blanrue @ 12:43–
http://generationm.over-blog.com/article-paul-eric-blanrue-pousse-pierre-piccinin-dans-ses-derniers-retranchements-107590639.html
and check out Paul-Éric’s blog:
http://blanrue.blogspot.com/
maoilriain
July 1, 2012 at 5:17 pm
Merci beaucoup, maoilriain.
Maidhc Ó Cathail
July 2, 2012 at 12:04 pm
[...] doubt goes through Syria, it is Tel Aviv, through its influential American lobby, that is clearly in the driver’s seat. Share this:PrintEmailTwitterFacebookStumbleUponRedditLike this:LikeBe the first to like [...]
Washington’s road to Iran goes through Syria — but who’s in the driver’s seat? « The Passionate Attachment
July 4, 2012 at 9:11 am
Israel lobby pushing Syrian regime change to weaken Iran:
http://tinyurl.com/jamesmorrisoncrosstalk
James
July 4, 2012 at 10:59 am