Netanyahu/Israel & the Syrian Regime Collapse...

Ten years ago, I asked at the start of this article, ‘Why is Israel bombing Syria?’

The answer wasn’t difficult to work out: it was more a rhetorical question about the illegality of Israel periodically bombing Damascus without any declaration of war.

That article was probably the first I published here on the activities of Israel, Turkey, the US, Britain and Europe, and Saudi Arabia, in what I called at the time ‘The International Conspiracy Against Syria’.

The Israelis are still bombing Syria right now, by the way: including Damascus.

The fact that this website contains more articles about the Syria crisis than probably any other comparable subject – from years-long geo-political propaganda deconstruction to multiple chemical attack scenarios – shows how long this horror story has been dragged out for.

A decade later, credit is due to Israel – and its allies. Persistence pays. The outcome in Syria is proof of the adage that if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.

While the news was still breaking that Damascus had fallen to anti-government forces, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared on Sunday that Israel is taking credit for the fall of the Syrian regime.

As Times of Israel published: ‘Netanyahu on Sunday claimed credit for starting the chain of events that led to the sudden fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria, hailing it as an “historic day”...’

Greater Israel, New Middle East

Said Netanyahu: ‘This is a historic day in the history of the Middle East… This is a direct result of the blows we have inflicted on Iran and Hezbollah. This has created a chain reaction throughout the Middle East of all those who want to be free from this oppressive and tyrannical regime.’

More curious are statements attributed to a rebel commander in Syria, in an interview also in the Times of Israel, this being from Friday.

Headlined ‘Syrian rebel commander urges Israel to support uprising, strike Iran-backed forces: Free Syrian Army officer expresses hope for friendly relations with Jewish state, warns of Iranian militias propping up Assad‘.

The interview might even be fabricated, for all we know: but it’s worth reading in full, as it’s very interesting. Among the comments made by the alleged FSA officer, he says ‘We will go for full peace with Israel, we will live side by side as neighbors. Since the outbreak of the Syrian civil war, we have never made any critical comments against Israel, unlike Hezbollah, who stated they aim to liberate Jerusalem and the Golan Heights…’

‘I will only say that we are thankful to Israel for its strikes against Hezbollah and against the Iranian infrastructure in Syria, and we hope that after the fall of Assad, Israel will plant a rose in the Syrian garden and will support the Syrian people, for the benefit of the region.’

I don’t know: it’s very flowery language. These don’t sound like the sentiments of a commander in the Free Syrian Army. But who knows?

He also seems to call on Israel to carry out further airstrikes in Syria.

Meanwhile, not missing a trick, Netanyahu also explained on Sunday that he had ordered the Israeli military to seize the buffer zone between the Israeli and Syrian-controlled Golan Heights.

The architect of the ‘New Middle East‘ said the 1974 disengagement agreement with Syria “has collapsed”.

Presumably, he meant that the collapse of the Syrian regime rendered all agreements null and void. Which is amusing, as Israel has never abided by any agreements or adhered to international law at the best of times.

Israel’s role in the events in Syria have been laid pretty plain for years: but its immediate response to the regime collapse has been highly informative.

Clearly, Syria and its future are viewed as part of the ‘New Middle East’ that Netanyahu announced last year just before October 7th.

Meanwhile an item cropped up on Friday night that caught my attention, but that I have been unable to verify.

This was some time prior to the capture of Damascus. And it was a Telegram post claiming that the Syrian Army had been hit by exploding pagers/electronics, just like in the operation against Hezbollah members in Lebanon two months ago.

Unfortunately I can only find one source for this claim at the moment: and it’s the Telegram post by Middle East Spectator.

So it’s hard to ascertain if this really happened or not.

Middle East Spectator is known to be an Iranian source. So it might not be reliable – certainly in the absence of corroboration by other sources.

But if it’s true that the Syrian Army fell victim to exploding pagers or electronics, that too obviously points to Israel.

And given the timing – with two major Syrian cities having just fallen to rebels at that point – one would have to posit Israeli foreknowledge of the rebel operations.

Not just foreknowledge, but possible coordination or parallel planning.

As we saw with the pager attack in Lebanon, that kind of sabotage operation takes long term planning and organisation – months or even years.

It’s unconfirmed, however. I’m waiting to see if any other sources reinforce the story.

I’m struggling with the idea that the Syrian Army would be using compromised pagers after what had just happened in Lebanon. And it does seem like the kind of story an Iranian account might make up in order to more squarely implicate Israel in Syria’s crisis.

If anyone here has seen any additional evidence or sources of a pager or electronics attack against the Syrian Army, do share it here.

Regardless of that, however, Israel’s role in Syria is obvious: and clearly runs parallel to its operations in Gaza and Lebanon.

Netanyahu wasn’t messing around when he talked about the ‘New Middle East’. By which, he means ‘Greater Israel’ and the expanded Promised Land.

Not that Israel was the sole plotter: again, the US, Britain, Turkey and others were massively invested in the destabilisation and regime-change programme for years.

But the fact that Israel seized the Syrian buffer zone while Assad’s plane probably hadn’t even left Syrian airspace yet demonstrates the instantaneous erosion of Syrian state sovereignty.

Just like Turkey isn’t likely to give up its illegally occupied Syrian territory, Israel was ready and waiting to claw at new land as quickly as possible.

There’s going to be a big land-grab in Syria – we can be sure of that, if nothing else.

https://burningblogger.com/tag/syria/