Israel expected to engage in Syrian Conflict

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

Israel wary quiet on Syrian front about to end

ALONEI HABASHAN, Golan Heights (AP) — Against a vista of green fields and snowcapped mountains, all is silent but for a gusting wind. Then comes a burst of gunfire from the Syrian civil war raging next door, where jihadist rebels are battling Bashar Assad's troops in a village.

Watching it all unfold from a few kilometers (miles) away are Israeli soldiers atop tanks behind a newly fortified fence, while a large-scale Israeli drill sends off its own explosions in the background.

This is the new reality on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, for 40 years the quietest of Israel's front lines, a place of hiking trails, bird-watching, skiing and winery tour. The military predicts all that will soon change as it prepares for the worst — a power vacuum in Syria in which rogue groups could get their hands of the country's large stockpile of chemical weapons.

Their mortar shells and bullets frequently land on the Israeli side, including in in some cases narrowly missing soldiers and civilians. A Syrian army tank shell landed in the border community of Alonei Habashan in February.

Though Israel believes these have mostly been cases of errant fire, it has responded with firepower of its own on several occasions in the first round of hostilities since a long-term armistice took hold after the 1973 Mideast war.

"Syria became a place that we see as a big threat to Israel and that is why we started to work in the last two years on a strong obstacle, on our infrastructure, in order to make sure that we will be ready for the future. And the future is here already."

Officials say the military's present deployment on the plateau is its most robust since 1973, and its most obvious manifestation is the brand new border fence, 6 meters (20 feet) tall, topped with barbed wire and bristling with sophisticated anti-infiltration devices. The previous rundown fence was largely untested until it was trampled over last year by Syrians protesting on behalf of Palestinians.

The military would not detail other measures it is taking, but stressed it was actively defining the new border arrangement now, before it's too late.

Israel, which borders southwestern Syria, has thus far been careful to stay on the sidelines of a civil war that has already claimed the lives of more than 70,000.

Assad is a bitter enemy, an ally of Iran and a major backer of Lebanese Hezbollah guerilla attacks against Israel. But like his father whom he succeeded as president, he has faithfully observed U.S.-brokered accords that ended the 1973 war. Israel worries that whoever comes out on top in the civil war will be a much more dangerous adversary.

Chief among Israeli concerns is that Assad's advanced weaponry could reach the hands of either his ally, the Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon, or Islamic extremist groups among the rebels trying to oust him.

"Syria is not a regular place ... it is the biggest warehouse for weapons on earth," Hirsch warned.

In an interview with BBC TV last week, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the rebel groups among "the worst Islamist radicals in the world."

"So obviously we are concerned that weapons that are ground-breaking, that can change the balance of power in the Middle East, would fall into the hands of these terrorists," he said.

This week, a senior Israeli military intelligence official said Assad used chemical weapons last month. After initial denials, American and British officials confirmed the assessment of Brig. Gen. Itai Brun, the head of research and analysis in Israeli military intelligence, that the lethal nerve agent sarin was probably used.

For Israel, the specter of peace with Syria disintegrating adds to a growing sense of siege.

It saw the Gaza Strip fall to the militant Hamas movement in an election in 2006. And Egypt, the most populous Arab country and the first to make peace with Israel, is now ruled by the fiercely anti-Israeli Muslim Brotherhood. Israel has all but admitted that its warplanes destroyed a shipment of anti-aircraft missiles believed to be headed from Syria to Hezbollah in Lebanon in January, and on Thursday it shot down a drone which it claimed was operated by Hezbollah. (Hezbollah denied launching it.).

Hirsch, who commanded an Israeli division in a monthlong war with Hezbollah in 2006, said war regional roles have since then been reversed. While once Syria used Hezbollah in Lebanon as a proxy against Israel, Hezbollah is now deterred from acting on Lebanese soil for fear of Israeli retribution and is preparing to use the instability in Syria as its future staging ground.

"The fighting in Syria gives them an opportunity to open a new front against Israel," said Hirsch. "We must be ready for turbulence. We must be ready for the Iranian involvement inside Syria. We must be ready to be able to fight against radical fundamentalist activities that will come from Syria, and that is what we are doing here."

http://xfinity.comcast.net/articles/news-general/20130426/ML--Israel-On.Syria_s.Doorstep/

Hmmmm....it appears yet again the US (and British) intelligence services are relying on Israeli claims about WMD, that can't be verified independently, that further Israel's own agenda. It is like deja vu all over again.

Edited April 26, 2013 by The Patriot

[decocker 7,198]

why not rely on their info, they rely on our money?

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

Hmmmm....it appears yet again the US (and British) intelligence services are relying on Israeli claims about WMD, that can't be verified independently, that further Israel's own agenda. It is like deja vu all over again.

Indeed.

[Pooky 3,834]

Hmmmm....it appears yet again the US (and British) intelligence services are relying on Israeli claims about WMD, that can't be verified independently, that further Israel's own agenda. It is like deja vu all over again.

In this area, I believe Israel's intelligence gathering capabilities to be superior to and more reliable than those of the US. On more than one occasion, Israel has launched airstrikes into Syria to destroy nuclear and chemical facilities.

The consequences of chemical weapons falling into the hands of anti-Israeli parties, who then proceed to use them against Israeli targets, don't bear thinking about.

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

In this area, I believe Israel's intelligence gathering capabilities to be superior to and more reliable than those of the US. On more than one occasion, Israel has launched airstrikes into Syria to destroy nuclear and chemical facilities.

The consequences of chemical weapons falling into the hands of anti-Israeli parties, who then proceed to use them against Israeli targets, don't bear thinking about.

But they have pushed misinformation in the past, for example, "yellow cake".

[PalestineMyHeart 1,897]