The Netanyahu government’s extremely Iran-centric foreign policy has had them largely ambivalent on Sunni Islamist factions taking over Syria for quite some time, but now the reports are that they cozying up to one of the biggest such factions, al-Qaeda.
The new reports say that al-Qaeda’s Jabhat al-Nusra, the Syrian rebel faction which seized much of the Syrian side of the Golan Heights, routinely sends wounded fighters across the border into Israeli Golan to receive Israeli medical treatment.
“We don’t ask who they are,” noted one Israeli military official, who said that the rebels are treated and sent back to Syria to resume the fight against the Assad government.
The Israeli government denies “actively” aiding al-Qaeda, though they have on several occasions launched military attacks into Syria against Syrian troops or Hezbollah fighters who were fighting al-Qaeda. Syrian President Bashar Assad has mockingly called Israel “al-Qaeda’s air force” because of the strikes.
Israeli officials have long maintained that because Assad is an ally of Iran, he is the greatest threat possible to Israeli security, and they seem to be taking that position seriously enough that they’re fine with al-Qaeda taking over the country.
Hillary & that big-eared looking guy might be credited with Israel's PR research work, there? Sequence might run, without really rousing too much ire: "humanitarian aid," "non-lethal aid," "defensive weapons," 'lethal stuff only for the nice, good looking ones from good neighborhoods' …say, what's next? (some crap about 'moderate ones,' I reckon). And you can eventually land at 'we don't ask questions.'
It's not a big deal to violate the sequence in reality, you just have to announce 'limited' and bleeding-heart type policies early and progress from there as your 'concerns' rise.
Strikes may be 'classified' or otherwise spun, medical services will tend to evoke more sympathy and approval than suspicion.
Terrorists are run into Syria from both Turkey and Israel, with US compliance, cooperation, and probably approval.
This info has been covered ad infinitum for years now- antiwar just getting it now?
pretty late to the game huh?
Covered where? Links?
Israel was fine with al-Queda on 9-11 too. No Israelis were killed in Manhattan, which is remarkable given the number who worked in the area. And between the first and second planes, when the whole world thought the first plane was an accident, 6 dancing Israelis were celebrating and taking pictures. The only people we know for sure knew it was a terror attack in that interim were Israelis. Hmmm,…. draw your own conclusions.
Five Israelis died in the attack. Doesn't mean you're wrong, just ignorant.
Well, they did, down-thumber. Look it up if you don't believe me. Again, it neither adds nor subtracts to the argument made, unless you care about the arguer's credibiltity. You don't convince anyone when you either lie or repeat lies.
they must have missed the 'heads-up'
Re; Brian. Not according the the report of the New York City's Vital Statistics which broke down the entire list by national origin. It was a special appendix prepared by the Department and added to its annual report. Not a news story or planted nonsense. There was an Israel passenger on one of the planes, but that was not in Manhattan. Does that mean you're just wrong, ignorant or mendacious?
Neither, since nothing I have said is a lie or proven wrong (yet). I have not read the report to which you refer but I suggest that at any dual nationals in it would have been counted as simply "American" since that's how their employers, voter lists, etc., would have seen them. See further Heathcliff just below this comment, which was up before you made yours, but which you have yet to refute. His post contains links, like this one: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/September_11_attack…
And anyway, seriously, who gives a crap? Anyone who was willing to send planes into buildings would not have cared whether citizens of their nation were there or not, so the idea that the presence or absence of ANY nation's citizens is some kind of CLUE as to this or that nation's culpability is utter BS. The Israeli 'art students' who appeared to be having a good time watching the towers go down? Yes, that's a lead. Israelis or duals or just plain how many Jews were in the towers (of which there were something like 200+)? It's a non-starter.
I am not a supporter of Israel and I am aware that there were some Israelis celebrating the 9/11 attacks because they knew it would make it easier to conflate that terrorism with their conflict with the Palestinians. However, let's stick to the facts.
http://www.snopes.com/rumors/israel.asp
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casualties_of_the_Se…
Brian was right.
Thanks Heathcliff. Some people react rather than reflect. Everything is black or white to them. It is why we live in the mess we do.
I wonder if those 28 pages that are being secreted away in the archives never to be released to the public makes it clear who the actual sponsors were, and not the Saudis.
Wouldnt you always render medical help to your allies.
In this country we have two political parties, the Democratic Party and the Likud Party which represents the Israeli government. I understand that Likud's Senators are planning to send a letter to Al Queda inviting its leaders to come to the Mayo Clinic for treatment should they be injured but only if they are injured by the Iranian military. Sheldon Adelson will be handling the expenses.
It would be good if you were right, but obviously you are not. Both in the House and in the Senate, as well as in the current and past Administration, there has been and still is an overwhelming bi-partisan support by our Government of essentially everything Israel chooses to do. Look at the votes in Congress; look at the unbroken series of US vetoes in the UN Security Council of any and every resolution in any way adversely affecting (or even criticizing) Israel for the past many years, with Democratic and Republican control of the White House and/or Congress. The sad fact is that Israel effectively owns our Government, with respect to any policy which Israel deems relevant to its interests. So far as Israel is concerned, in this country we have only one political party — one always favoring and subservient to Israel.
writer was in IDF for 5 yrs; columbia uni-connected; writing in cfr's mag with headline a reminder of george crile's "charlie wilson's war" – titled in uk, australia, etc "my enemy's enemy". pity hanks made the film:
9 March: Foreign Affairs Mag: Accepting Al Qaeda
The Enemy of the United States' Enemy
by Barak Mendelsohn
Since 9/11, Washington has considered al Qaeda the greatest threat to the United States, one that must be eliminated regardless of cost or time…
But the instability in the Middle East following the Arab revolutions and the meteoric rise of the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) require that Washington rethink its policy toward al Qaeda, particularly its targeting of Zawahiri. Destabilizing al Qaeda at this time may in fact work
against U.S. efforts to defeat ISIS…
But today, al Qaeda, although still a grave threat, is only one of several
emanating from the Middle East. Washington must not only contain Iran's
hegemonic aspirations… http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/143238/bar…
mean to say Mendelsohn (Accepting Al Qaeda: The Enemy of the United States' Enemy) is Cornell-connected, not Columbia. this is also source for IDF connection:
Foreign Policy: Barak Mendelsohn
Senior Fellow · Center for the Study of Terrorism
Barak Mendelsohn – an FPRI Senior Fellow – is an Associate Professor of
Political Science at Haverford College, where he teaches courses on Jihadi
movements and on the Middle East. He is author of Combating Jihadism:
American Hegemony and International Cooperation in the War on Terrorism
(University of Chicago Press, 2009). He served in the Israeli army for five
years and received his Ph.D. in Government from Cornell University… http://www.fpri.org/taxonomy/term/455/0