02 February 2013

An Israeli air strike on Syria, on...?

Now, this is interesting: the following hasn't surfaced on UK news broadcasts, although we did only get back to the UK on Wednesday, having flown back from the US, so we might have missed it. Still, we did check the news while airborne. So, we're told by the Times of Israel that "Some 24 hours after the air strikes in Syria, the facts and claims do not yet piece together into a coherent puzzle. It remains unclear if a convoy of advanced conventional weapons was hit as it moved west from Syria to Lebanon or if, either in addition or solely, a chemical weapons research and production center was struck on the outskirts of Damascus."

The thinking appears to be that the first is the more likely, as the latter would demand skill and intelligence that not even (even?) the Israelis might have - at least the intelligence. Given that, an inaccurate strike would risk unleashing chemical warfare components all over Damascus. Not a pretty thought.

However, intercepting and interdicting an arms shipment to Hezbollah might be more to the Israelis taste...and would also be something neither Hezbollah nor the crumbling Assad regime would be willing to admit, the moving of ever more sophisticated arms to Southern Lebanon. Better to accuse the Israelis of a war crime and the crossing of a red line: an attack on a semi-civilian target.

It's a well-argued article. See what you think.

By: Brian Goldfarb    

4 comments:

SnoopyTheGoon said...

Thanks. I appreciate your visit and comment. But what that link pertains to?

SnoopyTheGoon said...

The countries that protested: Syria, Iran, Russia.
The latter is interesting - don't recall them protesting after North Korean reactor in Syria was attacked.
According to the Iranians, the "research/military" facility was manned by the Iranians and Russians as well as Syrians. That would explain why the Russians are protesting.

SnoopyTheGoon said...

Oh. Good to know. Russians have their hands quite busy in Syria.

SnoopyTheGoon said...

I also notice that elsewhere (either - or both - of The Times of Israel &/or The Tablet) have items suggesting that the US has warned Syria off moving arms to Hezbollah. Or else, is also implied.


Further, one of those sources also claims that 5 days after the elections, the only world leader to have phoned Bibi and (allegedly) congratulated him was...Obama.


Sorry, Dick, but the truth must out.