Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday celebrated the overthrow of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad by al-Qaeda-linked militants and confirmed that Israel has seized a buffer zone inside Syria that separates the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights from the rest of Syria’s territory.
“This is a historic day in the history of the Middle East,” Netanyahu said during a visit to the Golan Heights. “The Assad regime is a central link in Iran’s axis of evil — this regime has fallen.”
Netanyahu credited Israel with setting off the process that led to the downfall of Assad. In the months leading up to the offensive launched by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), Israel was waging a war against Hezbollah and ramped up airstrikes in Syria.
“This is a direct result of the blows we have inflicted on Iran and Hezbollah, the main supporters of the Assad regime,” Netanyahu said. “This has created a chain reaction throughout the Middle East of all those who want to be free from this oppressive and tyrannical regime.”
The Israeli leader also said he directed the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) to capture the buffer zone in Syria. “Together with the Defense Minister, and with full backing from the Cabinet, I directed the IDF yesterday to take control of the buffer zone and the dominant positions near it,” he said. “We will not allow any hostile force to establish itself on our border.”
The buffer zone Israel has seized has been patrolled by a UN peacekeeping force, known as UNDOF, since 1974. Netanyahu declared that the agreement establishing the buffer zone and UNDOF has now “collapsed.”
The New York Times later reported that Israeli troops had entered Syrian territory beyond the buffer zone and took control of several locations. Israel also pounded Syria with airstrikes on Sunday, targeting dozens of military and government sites. Israeli officials said the purpose of the attacks was to prevent weapons from ending up in the hands of hostile forces.
There are signs that Israel had been planning to make a move on the buffer zone before the Assad government collapsed. The Associated Press reported that Israel began construction along the buffer zone, citing satellite images. After the report, UNDOF warned that Israel was committing “severe” violations of the deal with Syria that established the buffer zone.
https://www.indianpunchline.com/winners-and-losers-in-syria/
MK Bhadrakumar
Israel is a viper state. We feed the viper, arm the viper, coddle the viper.
Israel needs to see the light!
Yea, the same "lights" that appear when a bomb is dropped indiscriminately in a civilian area!
He forgot the actual biggest loser: CHINA. Xi made a HUGE Mistake.
This is a windfall for Bibi, land for the taking and he can now shop for curtains. Added plus, the IDF can now force Palestinians into Syria at gunpoint, win-win.
Why would the IDF force Palestinians into future ASI territory ? Look how long it took to get the ethnic cleansing of Gaza started; no chance the ASI ever has casus genocidii "this good" ever again.
What next, this may not be the end of the slaughter, there is Lebanon and all the different groups within the old Al Qaeda, including the Salafists who will likely fight each other for power.
What if Putin would or the Iranians would do to Israel what Netanyahu does to Gaza and Lebanon?
Every new buffer zone eventually needs another buffer zone
”Gypsies, tramps and thieves!”
Israel go home!…!…!…!…!….!
"Home" is everywhere the ASI can take & hold by force.
MSN: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/israel-invades-syrian-demilitarized-zone-amid-collapse-of-assad-government/ar-AA1vugoQ?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=DCTS&cvid=d5f2b1517c5b4d5a8059dc5479972147&ei=59
The plan all along. Israel could care less about anyone in Syria or anywhere.
Netanyahu has some experience with making friends with islamists I hear. Apparently neither regret nor wisdom gained.
“But this economy is so robust, you get credit for shit you had nothing to do with,”
Ignore him, not only because he lies when he opens his mouth, but he's saying this for Israeli and Euro-American consumption. Every new event is a nail in his coffin. He doesn't want you to know it but he knows it.
What "axis of evil" Satanyahu is talking about?
The most evil state in the world is Israel.
Such kind of genocide never was seen since collapse of Nazi Germany.
You're correct on all counts, but it is amazing that your comment was not removed already after 8 hours.
He didn't use the J word…!
In this forum, it's not the kind of comment that would be removed after any number of hours.
Checks your facts. At least 580,000 people died in the Syrian Civil War.
Watching this show underlines the opponriun & disdain moral people feel when those who do such mass murder from the time of Herod to the genocide in Gaza today!!!!!! The New Testament accounts: In the account of the nativity of Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew, the Biblical Magi who come from the east call Jesus the "King of the Jews", causing Herod the Great to order the Massacre of Newborn male children ("The Innocents.") Towards the end of the accounts of all four canonical Gospels, in the narrative of the Passion of Jesus, the title "King of the Jews" leads to charges against Jesus that result in his crucifixion. What comes around goes around & when it stops no one knows if ever!!!
Are you accusing the Romans of being behind Gaza?
"What have the Romans ever done for us ?"
That was, pretty much, the question Jesus got crucified for asking.
No. In my bible the question was "what have the Rabbis done for us lately?"
He was crucified by the Romans, in the manner reserved to the Romans for the crime of rebellion against Rome.
And he was a rabbi.
He never criticized Roman rule over Palestine. He criticized the hypocrisy of the Pharsees , Sadducees and the chief priest twho turned him over to the Romans on the pretext that he preached against Caesar. Pilate found no fault with him but the temple priests incited the mob to demand his crucifixion. Pilate went along with the frame up to pacify the mob.
He entered Jerusalem in the manner of a king surrounded by fellow Zealots/Nazoreans/Macabees, cleansed the temple of the people trading in graven images of Caesar in its courtyard, clearly separated in a public speech what was due to God vs. what was due to Caesar, held himself out as the messiah (a priest-king of the Davidic line prophesied to boot the Romans’ asses out of Judea and restore the rule of God), and admitted to those charges when questioned by the Roman official in charge of suppressing any such rebellions. He was then executed by the Romans in the manner reserved for rebels against Roman rule.
Yes, the Sadducees cooperated in his apprehension and prosecution — because THEY had something the Romans could threaten. Their school of Jewish religious thought was centered on a physical structure, the temple. And yes, Jesus was critical of the own rabbinical school from which he emerged (the Pharaisic school) — he was preaching the type of “evangelical” Judaism more suited to the rebels he was leading.
Even in the set of scriptures carefully curated over centuries by (checks notes) the Roman pagan cult created by Roman citizen Saul of Tarsus aka Paul for the purpose of shifting blame away from Rome, those facts survive.
As does the fact of the mob yelling for Pilate to free Bar Abbas. Do you happen to know what Bar Abbas means in Hebrew? Do you happen to know what Jesus called himself?
He entered Jerusalem in the manner of a king surrounded by fellow Zealots/Nazoreans/Macabees, cleansed the temple of the people trading in graven images of Caesar in its courtyard, clearly separated in a public speech what was due to God vs. what was due to Caesar, held himself out as the messiah (a priest-king of the Davidic line prophesied to boot the Romans’ asses out of Judea and restore the rule of God), and admitted to those charges when questioned by the Roman official in charge of suppressing any such rebellions. He was then executed by the Romans in the manner reserved for rebels against Roman rule.
Yes, the Sadducees cooperated in his apprehension and prosecution — because THEY had something the Romans could threaten. Their school of Jewish religious thought was centered on a physical structure, the temple. And yes, Jesus was critical of the own rabbinical school from which he emerged (the Pharaisic school) — he was preaching the type of “evangelical” Judaism more suited to the rebels he was leading.
Even in the set of scriptures carefully curated over centuries by (checks notes) the Roman pagan cult created by Roman citizen Saul of Tarsus aka Paul for the purpose of shifting blame away from Rome, those facts survive.
As does the fact of the mob yelling for Pilate to free Bar Abbas. Do you happen to know what Bar Abbas means in Hebrew? Do you happen to know what Jesus called himself?
You are a better biblical scholar than me. Yeah, I remember those parts of the gospels. But I also had the distinct impression that He did not dispute Roman hegemony over the material world. That was the point of the “render unto Caesar” teaching. He also maintained that his father’s kingdom “was not of this world.” In the end Pilate concluded that He was no threat to Rome and washed his hands. He was crucified by the Romans as a concession by Pilate to pacify the angry mob of indigenous natives who had been stirred up by the Temple oligarchs.
He entered Jerusalem in the manner of a king, in a way specifically geared to fulfill the messianic prophecy. His disciples were largely zealots/Maccabeans. He told them to buy swords even if they had to sell their clothes to do so. “Render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s and unto God what is God’s” referred specifically to the graven images of Caesar on the money in the temple courtyard. Roman law required that all temples have an idol of Caesar in them, but the Sadducees had worked out a modus vivendi with Pilate to keep a full-blown statue out. Jesus was saying “none of those coins, either” and defying the Romans by doing so.
After his arrest, he affirmed to Caesar that he was King of the Jews — and the sign over his head to that effect wasn’t mockery, it was letting the Jews know that their king was being executed by the Romans, in the manner reserved to the Romans, for the crime of rebellion against Rome, between two other zealots.
Even if the whole mob scene / washing of hands wasn’t inserted later, it pretty clearly referred to the question of whether the Jews were to give up their king, Jesus, or his bloodline (bar abbas, his son). They chose the individual so as to preserve the Davidic royal line.
I guess we disagree. Given that the bible is part history, part propaganda and part myth, we can never know what Jesus really believed. But the man described in the texts seems to be an ascetic who Pilate clearly felt posed no threat to Rome’s imperial interests.
According to the story, the mob was stirred up by the temple oligarchs to demand his execution because he was a threat to the temple scribes and priests. As for Barabas, hard to know, but he appears to be a rebel or maybe a criminal or maybe both who was seen as a threat to the Roman order, unlike Jesus.
But the best we can do is to agree to disagree. There is too much myth and propaganda for us to ever know who Jesus was or what he believed.
The temple oligarchs had it entirely in their power to execute Jesus themselves by stoning. The only way for Jesus to end up crucified between two other anti-Roman rebels was to be deemed by Rome as an anti-Roman rebel.
“Bar Abbas” isn’t a name, it’s Hebrew for “the son of the father.”
I am not a biblical expert. The gospels that I read portray Jesus as a man of peace who eschewed violence. Pilate saw no reason to condemn him except political expediency to placate the mob. That is the story we have been told and upon which the consensus Christian view is based. As for Barabbas’ name, I don’t know enough to know why he was given that name. But Son of the Father could have referred to Barabbas’ human father or some ancestor. So I will stick with the traditional interpretation of the gospel as the consensus view of Christians about Jesus’ politics. The truth we will probably never know.
1. Why did the "magi" see a new star in the East, then travel WEST ?
2. And how'd they arrive in Bethlehem when baby Yeshuah was still in the Nativity Scene ? If they knew exactly where to go, that'd be two MONTHS of overland travel between when the star appeared & the magi could arrive.
3. Historical accounts don't corroborate the author(s) of "Matthew" 's claim of Herod's massacre. The author(s) of "Luke", who borrowed from "Matthew" (both of which plagarised heavily from the author(s) of "Mark") didn't even bother to mention the "massacre" either.
Additionally, some scholars put the birth of Yeshuah at ~6 CE, after Herod's death in 1 or 4 CE.
My research indicates that since 2009, Syria has always refused to allow a $10 billion gas pipeline to be built on its territory to bring gas from Qatar to Europe through Turkey, with a branch to Israel.
Now, Benjamin Netanyahu has confirmed that Israel has seized a buffer zone inside Syria that separates the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights from the rest of Syria's territory.
Israel with have its gas branch from the Qatar-Turkey pipeline.
"“The Assad regime is a central link in Iran’s axis of evil — this regime has fallen.”
So said Netanyahu. That does answer some questions why the USA is funding the Ukrainians with many more million $$$ to fight an already lost war.
The Ukraine conflict was NEVER about NATO. The Americans want to lower the draft age in Ukraine for cannon fodder to go on fighting weakening Russia, to prevent them to support Iran when the Israelis plus USA/NATO will invade Iran.
The USA and Israeli's criminal elements never expected the Ukrainians to win against Russia, their job is to wear the Russians down as Lloyd Austin said and not waste their billions of $$$ on a lost cause. That is the reason why they push Zelensky to lower the draft age to 18 years for more desperately needed cannonfodder.
Netanyahu aka Frankenstein monster can't invade Iran fast enough.
Just what I was hoping would occur!!!! Israel front & center on Russian radar, and not in a good way!!! Let the games begin!!!!!'
Russia has its own problems to deal with.