Israeli warplanes bombed Syria on Friday night, wounding six Syrian soldiers, Syrian media reported. The strikes targeted an airbase outside of the Syrian city of Palmyra.
Syria’s SANA quoted a military source who said the airstrikes were launched from the direction of al-Tanf, a US military base in southeast Syria near the borders of Iraq and Jordan. The source said most of the missiles were intercepted by air defenses.
Israel generally doesn’t comment on its airstrikes in Syria. Occasionally, Israeli military officials discuss their frequent airstrikes in Syria and frame them as part of a campaign against Iran. But like Friday’s strikes, they typically kill Syrian soldiers or members of Iraq’s Shia militias.
If the Israeli warplanes flew from al-Tanf, it suggests possible US cooperation on the strikes. Brett McGurk, President Biden’s top Middle East official on the National Security Council, outlined his vision for US Syria policy in a 2019 op-ed. In the piece, McGurk said one of the US’s goals in Syria should be to support Israeli airstrikes.
ISIS air force is spreading more democracy (sarcasm). It’s important to give Dave credit for not reciting the “Israel attacked Iran backed militias” or mentioning the “Assad brutal regime” mainstream propaganda in this article. He framed it as “Israel typically” kills Syrians and “Iraq Shia militias,” although there was no evidence that there were any Iraqis present in the Syrian airbase. I don’t sense outrage or disagreement against Israel’s illegally attacking another nation but I welcome progress.
I second this.
Great progress.
Outrage, or just plain condemnation of such blatantly illegal acts is not allowed.
This is a red line.
I wish the Russians would shoot down some of the Israeli planes.
I always wonder why they don’t—unless they just do not want to tip their hand in how the systems work.
The Russians minimize the costs they pay for the benefits they seek.
They do not seek to set up Assad in a peaceful, prosperous Syria. Firing of very expensive missiles in a very expensive fight with Israel would be too much money for Russia’s minimum needs.
Russia seeks most of all to keep the jihadi war away from their own Muslim regions. They are fine with fighting there to avoid fighting “here.” It is a theme the US ought to recognize, which in this case might be more truthful than when the US uses the same argument.
Russia also seeks to keep Assad needing them, and doing as they ask. He must as long as he is under attack. So this works for them.
Russia might be applying the same logic to Israel and the US: They will be bombing and killing and causing trouble somewhere. They always have, for decades. Better they stay occupied with doing this here.
They do this with little harm to Russian interests, and little cost to Russia to fight it, and several benefits to Russian interests too (Assad needs then and jihadi kept occupied).
But most of all, they are occupied doing this so here, so they can’t go do it somewhere else instead, which they likely would do as they always have.
Agreed. Russia maintains that it’s pro-Israel. It remembers the last time Syria shot down an Israeli F-16. Israel retaliated with more massive bombings per Israel’s “mad dog” doctrine set by Moshe Dayan. Let’s face it. Israel is the super power in the Middle East. Many would add “mad” somewhere in the description–not based on my words, but from Moshe Dayan’s mouth himself. On the other hand, Russia knows that if Israel continues to win little battles, they may actually win the entire war. Looking at the big picture, I have no doubt that if it were not for Russia, Syria and Iran would be totally different countries right now. For background, see:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/February_2018_Israel%E2%80%93Syria_incident
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samson_Option
In 1967, at the conclusion of the war (which Israel started), Dayan was interviewed and he agreed that Israel was an occupier. He said that if, in ten years, Israel was still an occupier, that would be the end of the promise of Israel.
He also said that the Palestinians would “live like dogs”.
As point of information,Egypt started the war-removing UN peacekeepers, imposing a blockade, and moving his troops up to Israel’s borders.He stated “our mission is to destroy Israel”-got what he deserved. Keep your facts straight.
There will be no empathy for the IDF when their terrorist bombings of Syria are stopped, or when IDF planes are deservingly shot out of the sky. This will begin soon. Russia, and the world at large has had enough of this terrorist enclave occupying Palestine.
Russia is making its move in the East,ready to help China when the SHTF, and gloating over when it makes Europe pay huge sums begging for natural gas to keep from freezing his hard winter, Israel will remain free.
Free to take more Palestinian lands. Free to bomb whoever they desire. Free to kill more Iranian scientists. Free to accept $3.8 billion from the U.S. this year, and next year, and the next, and the next, also receiving extras, such as the $230 million to upgrade their guided missiles.
Putin is happily watching all this go on, selling some stuff here, keeping oligarchs there happy. All the while Alpha Bank servers communicate with Trump servers. Life is good in Russia!
Israel continues to kill, and kill, and kill. It never stops. That is the story, not just any one raid.