Following Syrian reports that they’d foiled an Israeli attack near the Golan Heights, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised to launch even more preemptive attacks against Syria into the future.
Netanyahu said Israel was facing “unending” tests, and that they would
continue to attack in a “systematic and consistent manner” to ensure
that Syria never establishes any capability to threaten Israel.
In practice Israel has been attacking targets in Syria on a regular
basis for months now, and indeed has spent much of the Syrian War
feigning neutrality while backing rebel groups, and attacking
pro-government forces on every pretext, and often with no pretext at
all.
It is no surprise, then, to hear that preemptive Israeli attacks will
continue, though it is somewhat surprising to hear Israeli officials
present them as such. Generally speaking, Israel tries to spin every
strike they acknowledge as retaliation, and when they aren’t retaliating
against anything in particular, they generally refuse to comment.
Netanyahu Vows More Preemptive Attacks Against Syria
Says Israel will attack in a 'systematic and consistent manner'
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.
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