Three Syrian tanks reportedly entered the demilitarized zone in the Golan Heights on Saturday, marking the first such violation in 40 years and prompting renewed concerns that Syria’s conflict expand its borders.
More accurately, the Golan Heights is recognized internationally as Syrian territory, but the area was captured and then illegally annexed by Israel in the 1967 war. Israel responded to the tanks with restraint by complaining to UN peacekeepers.
UN officials said they could not immediately confirm Israel’s allegations, but if they are true it would be a violation of the 1974 disengagement agreement between Syria and Israel.
Israel has been less antagonistic to the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad throughout the internal conflict than many expected. While many in Tel Aviv want to see Assad fall, they fear rising Islamic extremist and militancy that characterizes much of the Syrian rebel opposition.
From the looks of it, this incident won’t prompt escalatory actions by either Israel of Syria, just as outright skirmishes between Syria and neighboring Turkey did not lead to a break out of war.
Oh the irony here is thicker than tar.
Israel violates international law by illegally annexing the Golan, a territory it had captured in an offensive war it had started, but the minute three Syrian tanks enter the DMZ, Israel runs to complain to the same entity that which it treats with scorn and disdain and whose resolutions it disregards on a regular basis.
This just begs for a Monty Python skit.
In other words, Syrian tanks entered Syrian territory.
The nerve of some people!
Delenda est Israel.
We said it long time ago, as long as you have Hillary Clinton calculating with her wrong foreign policies as a win win situation then this and all other EU and US wars are going to a war as long, if not more, as Afghanistan. This kind of wrong policies will suck in the US and EU into a deeper recessions, less democracy in both Sid of Atlantic and more misery for the people in all front. Let the Saudis be as they are, let the Israeli regime be as they are, helping them is not going to help you at home with anything., they simply don't care about your policies nor the people, they been using the American people and the Europeans for years, now is time for a right policy not a wrong one again, certainly Mitt Romney or Obama are the right answers.
"UN officials said they could not immediately confirm Israel’s allegations, but if they are true it would be a violation of the 1974 disengagement agreement between Syria and Israel."
What a farce. The only "disengagement agreement" that the UN should be enforcing is the return of the Golan Heights to its rightful owners.
i contend that israel not only does not *fear* rising "extremism" on its borders (in this abstract and very nonthreatening manner)… but welcomes it. WELCOMES it (the way it is currently manifested, and will be manifested).
why else would the US, and her many gulf dictator and other allies, be fomenting the armed conflict in syria? arming, funding, and providing western PR cover for the insurgency? yes, the path to iran leads through syria, but even outside of this narrow lens…. why?
this is a chess game, and a simmering pot around israel is not only good "PR" (in a twisted sense, "look at them!"), in a good while it may help israel play its final move….
i will not get into that move now, but i suggest you look at the history of the *USA* and others in the region, through the lens of right wing zionists.
ie, see this position paper from 1982… which telegraphs most of US policy in the region for the last 20 years.
oded yinon, translated by israel shahak- http://cosmos.ucc.ie/cs1064/jabowen/IPSC/articles…
I too highly recommend the shahak link included in occupy911truth's mail as one of the most vital documents on recent ME history