Israeli Air Strike Against Syria Base Kills One, Raises Border Tensions

Is the IDF Gradually Getting Sucked Into Syria's War?

Most border nations have been sucked into the Syrian Civil War in one way or another, whether it’s Lebanon and Turkey being smuggling havens, Jordan hosting rebel training bases, or Iraq seeing a huge influx of foreign fighters and arms. Then there’s Israel

Today, Israeli warplanes attacked a Syrian military base in northern Golan, nominally in retaliation for a bombing in the Shebaa Farms yesterday. One Syrian soldier was killed and seven wounded in the Israeli strike.

Syria confirmed the strike and cautioned it was a violation of the 1973 ceasefire. The Israeli government touted the attack as proof they will “attack those who attack us,” even though Syria’s military almost certainly wasn’t involved in the Shebaa Farms incident.

Israel is keen to blame Hezbollah for the attack, though other reports have suggested Hezbollah may not have been to blame. Israel similarly blamed Hezbollah for an incident last week and attacked Lebanon over it, only to find that al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI), a rebel group active across the region, was actually behind it.

Whatever the pretext, the Israeli strike, and yesterday’s artillery fire, point to growing IDF aggression against Syrian territory, and with rebels openly courting them they could find themselves sucked into the civil war directly before they realize it.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.