Israel/Nusra Cooperation w/US help

The Israeli Air Force have conducted several airstrikes on Syria's Damascus International Airport, targeting an arms depot, a source in Syrian army's Joint Staff told Sputnik on Sunday. 

"The Israeli Air Force have conducted airstrikes on an arms depot, which caused huge blasts near the [Damascus] International Airport," the source said in a phone conversation.

According to the source, explosions are heard near the Damascus airport and the capital's suburb Al-Dimas.

He added that the Joint Staff will release a statement on the attack soon. 

Last reports on Israel's resorting to military action against Syria date back to June, when Israeli aviation hit nine Syrian military targets in the disputed territory of the Golan Heights. Sputniknews

http://sputniknews.com/middleeast/20141207/1015591997.html

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IMO , this set of attacks and another down near the Golan Heights line of demarcation strongly support "b's" contention that Israel is backing the advance of a Nusra Front/FSA force toward Damascus from the south.  US cooperation in this effort is probable.  I have been told that the nearly complete collapse of the unicorn army of FSA moderates has caused the US to covertly approach Nusra with a proposal to offer support if Nusra will scale back its IS-like  habit of butchering its enemies when they are captured.  That would include a more tolerant attitude toward US journalists.  pl

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"Records from Israel’s Ministry of Health have revealed that so far about 1,000 Syrians have been treated at four hospitals in the north of Israel, among them fighters from the Free Syrian Army, Israeli news site i24news.tv reported. 

i24 further noted that last month, Israel’s Druze minority staged a protest against the hospitalization of wounded fighters with links to the al-Qaeda-linked al-Nusra Front and the Islamic State in Israel. i24 explained that Israel’s Druze community, like the Druze communities in Syria and Lebanon, largely support Bashar al-Assad’s government in Syria, fearing what may happen to their community should Islamist rebels succeed in toppling him.

Asked by i24 if Israel has hospitalized fighters from al-Nusra and the IS, an IDF spokesman said that “in the past two years the Israeli Defense Forces have been engaged in humanitarian, life-saving aid to wounded Syrians, irrespective of their identity.”"

http://sputniknews.com/middleeast/20141207/1015592170.html

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This is more proof of "b's" contention.  Many Israeli Druze serve in the IDF and Border Polics.  The Sunni militants are the enemies of their blood.  pl

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Lastly the FZ newsie program this Sunday featured a panel in which some remarkably ignorant and self serving things were said.  The nadir of rational discussion was reached by Richard Haas who says he thinks that an international military task force should be formed to impose a new government on Syria by force.  He would include; Turkey, the US, the UK, France, Jordan and various groups of cats and dogs from the Gulf.  Just thought I would mention it.  Someone, please put up a link.  Remarks welcomed.  pl 

 

Comments

[Cee]

Israel supporting al-Nusra is no different than them helping to create Hezebollah and Hamas. I wish the US would finally stop going along with their crackpot schemes.

Btw, I read that Erdogan is turning toward Putin these days. I'll have to locate the article.

[Ishmael Zechariah]

Col. Lang, CP:

Thanks for the good wishes. The Turkish Republic will, hopefully, survive the current (sunni) islamist kleptocracy. The regime is getting desperate and playing both ends against the middle:

http://www.globalresearch.ca/talking-turkey-and-gas-pipelines-putins-groundbreaking-deal-with-turkish-president-erdogan/5418420

The zionists who backed tayyip and his band of thieves need to come up with an alternative, but they, too, are running out of options.

I wonder if Putin will activate the S400 batteries it might have in Syria.

Ishmael Zechariah

[b]

"the real policy was and is the physical and economic destruction of, and the ripping apart of the social fabric of, both Iraq and Syria,"

Said so in September 2012
http://www.moonofalabama.org/2012/09/syria-destruction-is-their-aim.html

[turcopolier]

b

It has been my opinion from the start that US policy has been cleverly controlled by Ziocon interests to foster the idea of an Israel safe in the ME. Neocon devotion to Jacobin ideals of political and social revolution as convenient to the Israeli security goals made that easy. The further addition of R2P influence and naivete has made all this even more pernicious and destructive since th Obamanistas are incapable of dealing with reality. pl

[oofda]

With only 19 surface warfare ships, the Royal Navy does not have much of anything to deploy East of Suez-- or anywhere else!

[Charles I]

I think what's of note is that Israel is now openly involved in the dissolution and eventual dismemberment of a neighboring state, sold as the usual retaliatory and preemptive strikes on terrorists and their kit. This may lead to a tactical gain of some Syrian territory but the actual entrenchment of the Islamic State in dismembered Syria and Iraq, requiring our permanent but dithering presence.

Which both experience and insanity teach us can only lead to further blowback, this time closer to Israel. From which ultimately may emerge one of those iconic last evac photos of a helicopter hovering over a smoldering Dome of the Rock.

[turcopolier]

Charles I

Very good! You get an A. pl

[David Habakkuk]

oofda, Fred,

I think for the reasons you both give, the military significance of the Bahrain base is likely to be zilch, or as near to it as makes no matter.

The political significance relates to the question which has been becoming increasingly unavoidable over the past years. In the context of an escalating conflict between Sunni and Shia – which our dotty invasion of Iraq did much to intensify – should we ‘double down’ on our alliance with ‘conservative’ Sunni regimes, and forget about their involvement with jihadism, or seek some kind of accommodation with the Shia?

In this context, the symbolic significance of the Bahrain base is considerable. Some well-informed observers, however, are sceptical about it for precisely this reason. So Patrick Cockburn, perhaps the best British correspondent working in the Middle East, writes:

At the heart of the crisis convulsing this part of the Middle East is a struggle between Sunni and Shia, and Britain has openly taken the side of the former. It may not necessarily be a good long-term investment. The total population of states bordering on the Gulf is about 145 million of whom at least 110 million are Shia. It is a mistake to think that the Shia in the rest of the Middle East do not notice or care what happens to their co-religionists in Bahrain. The Islamic State (Isis) fighters have become the shock troops of the Sunni communities in Iraq and Syria but their extremism and international isolation may lead to a defeat for the Sunni in both countries.

(See http://www.unz.com/pcockburn/building-a-british-naval-base-in-bahrain-is-a-symbolic-choice-for-no-clear-reason/ .)

[David Habakkuk]

Lord Curzon,

I once had high hopes of Rory Stewart. But then I learned that, in July 2008, he had been appointed ‘Ryan Family Professor of Human Rights at Harvard University and Director of the John F. Kennedy School of Government Carr Center for Human Rights Policy.’

I know an enemy when I see one!

[Fred]

oofda,

Yes, a point lost on the author of the report Valissa linked too.

[Fred]

Babak,

If I recall correctly it was Saudi Arabia and the GCC that helped crush the revolt/protests in Bahrain in 2011 and not the "3 Amigos".

[Babak Makkinejad]

I was imagining a typical conversation among the English pertaining the current situation in the Middle East or Ukraine:

- It is really deplorable old chap; they way the Yanks are going about this.

- Indeed! And they are making every mistake in the book; who is going to tell them?

- Not us; it is absolutely imperative that we remain on their good side.

- Righto! One or two sugar cubes?

- One, and may I have a crumpet as well please?

[different clue]

b,

Should we think that the GOI is doing this on its own initiative, or should we think that the GOI is doing this as a strongly-requested favor from the USG in return for all the help we give them?
I wonder about this because why would Israel freely risk the hatred of its Druze soldiers by helping their blood enemies in Syria overthrow Assad?

[different clue]

David Habakkuk,

Is Richard Haas an American Zionist in particular? Or is he simply an American Exceptionalist Global-Leadershipist in general?

[different clue]

JohnH,

Which Syrians would unite to oppose what occupiers? Which Syrians would consider which other Syrians to be occupiers or occupier-proxies?

[different clue]

Cee,

How did Israel help create Hezbollah? I thought Israel merely inspired the Shia of South Lebanon into a state of resistance against Israeli occupation when Israel made that occupation very impolite and clearly open-ended.

I thought it was Iranian experts themselves on the ground sent from the Islamic Republic of Iran who helped the various Shia militias of South Lebanon form up and organized into a unified Hezbollah. I thought I remember reading that Larijani was involved in that effort. Am I wrong about all that?

[turcopolier]

DC

for my part I would say that the Israelis are remarkably blinded by the exclusivist nationalism. pl

[walter]

Did anybody see the youtube clip of the State Department spokesman being caught off-camera seemingly admitting that the US Government talking points she had just provided the reporting pool were "ridiculous". If this is so, it provides the impression that these traitorous State Department employees have more loyalty to keeping their jobs than standing against policies they know in their hearts are "ridiculous".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ON5QRDjuT-I

[walter]

All, So, oversimplified summary: US Syria policy is to assist Israel destroy Syria/Iran/Hezbollah axis even though it means arming/supporting Al Quida?

anyone willing to summarize potential blowback/costs of this risky strategy..many have been mentioned

[Babak Makkinejad]

I would say no, you are right.

[Babak Makkinejad]

I only meant that the 3 Amigos are making money off Arabs...

[Charles I]

King Abdullah of Jordan is on Charlie Rose right now.

Its good vs evil, an intra-Muslim civilizational fight of the kind hoped to be inspired by 911. All solutions are political, require global co-operation including with Iran and Russia to deal with ME and African jihadis, using the locals' boots on the ground. He calls it a world war against fundamentalism in which Muslims of all types must pick sides, fight the fight, defuse the incendiary hot spots including Palestine.

Says quiet political engagement, even with the recalcitrant, is coming together, with some "triggers" needing to be pulled by the end of the year.

[Charles I]

Like watching a train wreck. I looked away all summer but the damn thing is still on course. I am trying to reduce my affect to affect-less cynicism. Very sad.

[Croesus]

re "the hell unleashed on ordinary people."

Arthur Brooks, president of AEI, advocates for "morality," even "honesty" in foreign policy. He doesn't believe in no stinkin' blowback.

In a 3-hour interview on C Span recently http://www.c-span.org/video/?322566-1/depth-arthur-brooks a caller said:

"We owe the people of Iraq an apology for devastating their country ... AEI scholars supported the war on Iraq ..."

Brooks replied: "There's a lot in your comment for me to disagree with ... We owe Iraq an apology for leaving to soon and now ISIS is killing minorities ... We should finish what we started ..."

Brooks styles himself a guru of "charity and happiness." Happiness comes from more than just economic well-being; happiness comes from "cultural integrity, family values, being able to maintain one's faith in god. . . . The four things that lead to happiness ... once beyond basis subsistence, are faith, family, friends, and work."

Brooks complained that the Obama administration "does not have a foreign policy."

But Brooks, and AEI, seem to endorse destroying "faith, family, friends, and work" for the people of Iraq -- and Syria, Iran, Libya, Afghanistan.

What makes Brooks blind to this hole in his dogma?

[Cee]

Different Clue,

From Ricard Silverstein

Israel’s top weekly TV newsmagazine, Uvdah, features a profile of Israel’s most-storied living spy, Rafi Eitan. The stories of his exploits as operations chief within the Mossad are legend: he began his career by kidnapping Eichmann and returning him to face justice in Israel.

One notorious and hitherto secret operation for which Eitan deserves far more ‘credit’ is the key role he played in the formation of Hezbollah.

He initially conceived Hezbollah as a counter to the power of Arafat’s PLO within Lebanon. It’s virtually the same strategy Israel used in founding Hamas, also a little known chapter in Israeli intelligence history told in the Wall Street Journal (of all places!). In this circumstance too, after trying and failing numerous times to create quisling Palestinian entities to combat the supremacy of the PLO, it determined to found an Islamist organization to counter-balance the secular Fatah.

http://www.richardsilverstein.com/2014/12/02/israels-top-spy-kidnapped-eichmann-ran-pollard-created-hezbollah/

All,

I found the article about Turkey turning to Russia that I mentioned before

http://orientalreview.org/2014/12/02/cold-turkey-ankara-buckles-against-western-pressure-turns-to-russia/