Israel's Not So Secret Undeclared War on Syria

by Stephen Lendman (stephenlendman.org - Home - Stephen Lendman)

A previous article asked how can Middle East peace and stability be possible when dark forces in the US and Israel want sovereign Syria and Iran forcibly replaced by pro-Western puppet rule?

Russian good faith efforts for peace in Geneva, Astana, and Sochi failed because Washington, its key NATO partners, and Israel reject diplomatic conflict resolution. US-led forever wars rage - in Syria and elsewhere.

Israel has been waging intermittent war on Syria for years without declaring it, partnering with US regional aggression with its own aims in mind - notably a greater Israel it seeks, wanting territory bordering the country annexed.

Interviewed by the UK Sunday Times, outgoing IDF chief General Gadi Eisenkot explained what's widely known, saying "(w)e struck thousands of targets (in Syria) without claiming responsibility or asking for credit" - flagrantly illegal aggression, he failed to explain.

Throughout much of the war, Israel directly aided ISIS, al-Nusra, and other jihadists in Syria, supplying them with weapons and munitions, treating their wounded in a border area field hospital.

The IDF earlier admitted supplying weapons, munitions, cash, and other material support to terrorists operating along the Israeli/Syrian border.

Last September, an IDF statement said it conducted hundreds of airstrikes on Syrian targets in the last 18 months alone, some near Russia's Khmeimim airbase, Lebanese airspace most often used to launch strikes.

Syrian forces found large caches of Israel and Western weapons in areas liberated from jihadists. Last September, a Foreign Policy magazine report said Israel covertly supports at least a dozen jihadist groups operating in southern Syria.

"In January 2017 we began attacking the infrastructure the Iranians were building in Syria (sic)," Eisenkot told the Sunday Times, adding: "The critical mass was from mid-2017. We began attacking systematically a number of times each week. Without making any statements. Beneath the radar."

Iran has no military infrastructure in Syria, no combat troops in the country, military advisors only, operating from Syrian bases and Damascus.

In 2018 alone, the IDF dropped around 2,000 bombs on Syrian targets, according to Eisenkot, what he falsely called Iranian ones. 

Like other Israeli officials, he lied claiming Iran seeks Israel's destruction, a phony pretext for wanting Islamic Republic rule replaced by pro-Western fascist tyranny.

For Eisenkot and the Netanyahu regime, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps is Israel's main invented enemy. No real ones exist.

All wars are unjustifiably justified by Big Lies. Eisenkot turned truth on its head, falsely claiming "Iranian strategy" involved sending "up to 100,000 Shiite fighters (to) Syria…by the end of 2018, adding:

"They were bringing them in from Pakistan, Iraq and Afghanistan. They built intelligence bases on the Golan Heights and simultaneously built wings at all the Syrian air force bases and brought in civilians to begin a process of indoctrination in schools and population centers."

No evidence of his claimed "Iranian strategy" exists. His baseless claim omitted explaining that throughout its history, the Islamic Republic never attacked another country - what US-led NATO and Israel do repeatedly.

His claim about Iran commanding over 20,000 fighters in Syria is pure rubbish - Big Lies to claim justification for Israeli cross-border aggression.

Allied with the US as an imperial partner, Israel continues waging undeclared war on Syria, terror-bombing targets like the Pentagon, rejecting restoration of peace and stability to the country.

Their actions have nothing to do with what Eisenkot called "self-defense" - everything to do with naked aggression for regime change.

Israel also aims to annex more Syrian territory - as much as it can steal.

A Final Comment

The Sunday Times deceptively titled its report "Smash the bases, spare the men — Israel's invisible war in Syria." 

Like the US and its key NATO partners, Israel considers civilians legitimate targets - massacring them indiscriminately in Occupied Palestine, Syria, and other wars of aggression throughout its history.

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