Why Israel Attacked A Syrian Base: To Hit Missiles About to be Transferred to Hizballah
Israeli planes attacked a store of advanced anti-aircraft missiles at a Syrian base that were about to be transferred to Hizballah. The attack came shortly after spotting a build-up of Hizballah and Syrian forces at the base.
During the 2006 Israel-Hizballah war, Israel frequently hit convoys delivering weapons to Lebanon the moment they crossed the Syria-Lebanon border, showing a very strong intelligence capacity on such events. This attack also shows both good intelligence and an ability to act on it.
The Israeli position has been that it will not allow any transfer of advanced weapons by the Syrian regime to either Hizballah or radical Lebanese Sunni groups. Israel had previously made this point clear through public statements to the Syrian government.
Syria has regularly transferred advanced weapons systems to Hizballah. But Israel has declared a “red line” in being ready to stop the shipment of chemical weapons or advanced Russian-made anti-aircraft missiles. The missiles would be used against Israeli reconnaissance planes watching Hizballah’s military build-up in the south and future arms transfers from Syria, as well as in the event of Israeli retaliation after Hizballah terrorist attacks into Israel.
Brigadier General Amnon Sofrin, a retired army intelligence officer and former head of intelligence for the Mossad, Israel’s intelligence agency, gave a press conference in which he pointed to the danger from any future transfers of Syrian chemical weapons to Hizballah.
“I think that if we have solid evidence shared by our own partners all over the world, that chemical warheads are being transferred from Syria to Lebanon, to Hezbollah, I think that no one will condemn Israel for trying to prevent it.”
This should be read as explaining that Israel notified the United States and others of its intelligence information prior to the attack.
He added that Syria possesses sarin, a deadly nerve gas, and an even worse poison called VX, which remains on the ground for many days after being fired. Syria has hundreds of warheads capable of carrying these substances. Hizballah could also put these warheads on missiles it possesses and shoot them into Israel.
Sofrin continued:
Should [Syrian dictator Bashar al-]Assad decide his regime is at its end, he could think, “If I go [lose power part of my legacy] will be that Hezbollah will have capability to hit Israel very badly.”
While much of the Syrian opposition is radical Islamist or even part of al-Qaeda, Sofrin continued, that is a new threat but not an immediate threat like that emanating from Hizballah.
However, given the likelihood of the regime being overthrown and replaced by a government that is led by the Muslim Brotherhood and, either willingly or because it is unable to prevent them from doing so, gives a free hands to Salafist groups or even al-Qaeda affiliates, Israel cannot predict what its security situation will be like with Syria a year from now.
Note that if al-Qaeda gets its hands on chemical weapons — and that means deadly nerve gases — this would be a direct threat to the United States and other Western countries as well as to Israel.
This is not good. Although it is a good thing that the Israelis stopped the convoy, this could also mean that Assad is on his way out and that he wants to move or give his chemical weapons to Hezbollah. If Assad does fall, you could have anarchy breaking out in Syria with nobody in control of the chemical weapons. That would invite a military intervention on the part of the United States, Israel, NATO, or all three. This could dramatically expand the war and I don’t think the Syrians would welcome having their country invaded by several foreign armies. Like I said, this is not good.
Shipmate, not to worry. US and NATO won’t do anything, ever, (except impede Israeli efforts) and maybe never again. O will be replaced by someone even worse.
We have turned the country over to ‘cool’ ‘hip’ and well medicated minorities consumed by false grievances.
Hunker down my friend hunker down.
ta
Libertyship46:
Usually you are so astute and spot on, but I must respectfully disagree.
This is good!
“If Assad does fall, you could have anarchy breaking out in Syria with nobody in control of the chemical weapons.” There already is anarchy in Syria. Was Israel supposed to to wait till al-Qaeda, Hezbollah, Hamas, etc got those chemical weapons. Michael Hoskins is correct. 50,000 dead Syrians and the US and NATO have done nothing.
Chris Hawkins: You got it backwards! Israel is monitoring the movements and giving the US intel!
Why was my comment deleted? For a change I didn’t say anything particularly crazy or obnoxious
Oh, I see. My deleted comment was not on this post, but on another post with a similar title that was deleted altogether and replaced with this one. That’s a relief.
The Movement to Impeach Obama – GRTV Backgrounder
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5mlpZ7Tn5o&feature=player_embedded
We don’t know the cargo targeted, but if the Israelis’ decided to hit the convoy in Syria their intelligence had to deem the material a serious threat to its security.
Hizbullah is biding its time. If Israel has to operate against the Iranian threat, Hizbullah will be a proxy instrument used against Israel, as will the Gaza Palestinian element. Syria has been a conduit for material to be used to attrit and weaken Israel. The convoy attacked must have been carrying something quite dangerous.
If Israel deems activities in Iran an existential threat, Israel will use it’s assets to attrit those in Iran. Iran will counter by employing its proxies. Israel knows this and is likely to act preemptively when it deems an attack necessary.
Lebanon will be the grass that suffers when the conflict occurs.
Why was it that the liberal media outright refused to accept any suggestion that Saddam’s WMD nerve gasses, which he was known to have used against the Kurds and others during his dictatorship, were loaded aboard those truck convoys spotted leaving Iraq for Syria?
Why doesn’t the smug liberal media deign to ask about the source(s) of those WMD’s known to be in Syria’s possession….now discreetly, in turn, being evacuated from Syria?….to be used by yet other murdering Muslims? Didn’t they indeed come in from Saddam’s Iraq?
The hypocrisy and deviousness of the liberal “news” media and liberal commentariat has to be exposed with the same viciousness as theirs is against accepting the reality of inconvenient facts.
Why do we hear nothing of this?
From my armchair it seems likely that two targets were hit.
Syria has already admitted that some sort of military “research facility” was hit just beyond the border with Israel and that this base was the target of attacks from the rebels recently. Whatever was there the IAF strike destroyed something the Israelis did not want to be captured by the Islamist guerillas or transferred to Hez. Does not sound like a chemical weapon depot which you cannot just drop a bomb on without significant obvious consequence.
The other claim is about a convoy carrying something into Lebanon. The advanced Russian AA missile system supposedly. That makes sense. Hezbolla would never report on something like that although it has happened before. Neither would the Israelis.
Going though the news lately Israel has dispatched top level envoys to Russia, US, and elsewhere for briefings. They have information and wanted to coordinate with the powers that be. The lack of evidence or much comment at all from the big powers indicates that there was good intel and whatever happened in Syria stays in Syria.
Blowback.
The Us arms the Muhajedeen ->> weapons fall into islamist hands
The russians arm the syrians ->> weapons fall into islamist hands
The US gives the Morsi regime F15s and Abrams tanks ->>
In your last example the US has decided to skip the intermediate step and give the weapons directly to the Islamists.
Not all the US. At least half of us don’t like or want the US administration giving or selling weapons to muslims.
Absolutely. Let’s start by cutting off Pakistan and Egypt.
Mike, selling weapons to the Egyptian military is not exactly the same thing as selling them to the Egyptian government. The military is to a large degree independent of the government. Surely, the US government considers that a significant faction within the Egyptian military is partial to Western interests, and that by providing support and supplies to the military, we are strengthening this pro-Western faction. The military is a semi-independent power source that keeps the Muslim Brotherhood from grabbing all power within the country.
That being said, I personally don’t agree with selling this weaponry to the Egyptian military, but the idea of maintaining influence with the Egyptian military is not the silly idea you are making it out to be.
Robert, I don’t think you can really separate the regime from the military. If you read sadat’s autobiography you see that the military coup had it’s origins in the MB. The two are so intertwined that it has been much simpler for Morsi to purge the military than say edrogan’s successful purges in Turkey.
Nerve gas is not nice, but it is not contagious, and so, it stays rather local, and will decay. Infection germ weapons such as smallpox,plague modified influenza, etc can leapfrog all around the world bringing massive epidemics and social upheaval.Biological warfare agents are so easy to make that it they may be at the level of high school science fair projects in some countries, or groups. Fuel air bombs or even tac nukes would nor be out of place for the supporters of germs without borders.
this was a powdered milk factory and the trucks were delivering milk to the Lebanese hisbolla babies. so did this milk run have secondary explosions, because i heard that powdered milk was sometimes volatile. makes babies blow chunks
I REALLY REALLY hope the US is monitoring these movements and feeding intel to the Israelis- if we’re not that would be shameful and grossly negligent.
Because the US didn’t pick a side early on, I guarantee that the AlQaeda talking point for years to come will be “We liberated Syria and America let you die.” People like winners. People are drawn to winners. We’re letting AlQaeda win in Syria.
Not to beat a dead horse here but…When Bush was in office the dems’ mantra was, “Bush lied about the WMDs. He conned us into going into Iraq.” The implication here is that if there HAD been lots of WMDs in Iraq then their support would have been justified. But NOW….pretty much everyone agrees that Syria has them, there is a very real possibility that they could fall into the hands of terrorists (Al Qaeda, Hezbollah and who knows who else) and and and…no one seems to care. Didn’t something happen back in 2001? Like in September sometime…? It’s so hard to remember things. But how ’bout Michelle Obama’s new haircut huh?
It may be time for the President to put away his 9 iron and attend some intelligence meetings. Just throwing that crazy idea out there.
And by the way, Barry, I sincerely hope your health is good. Stay strong and keep writing- you are a huge asset to PJ media.
This is a propaganda site. worse than fox news. This site cant be taken seriously. Extream Extream right wing crap. I dont think I will be back unless I need a good laugh. I think I will turn Jon Stewart and comedy central on to the PJ Media because there is tons of great material here.