Posted on 06/06/2013 4:21:34 AM PDT by Colonel Kangaroo
Army Radio reports that Israeli officials are concerned about the growing strength of Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime in recent days • Assessment is that a victorious Assad would be more dependent on Iran, increasing the threat facing Israel.
Israeli officials are concerned about the growing strength of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime in recent days, Army Radio reported.
Senior Israeli officials were quoted as saying that "al-Qaida control over Syria would be preferable to a victory by Assad over the rebels."
This view is based on the assessment that a victorious Assad would be much more dependent on Iran than in the past. In such a scenario, Iran would have greater ability to threaten Israel than it does today. Also, the ties between Iran, Syria and Hezbollah would become even tighter, increasing the dangers facing Israel.
Israeli officials said one country in the world was openly seeking the destruction of Israel -- Iran.
"Assad is now Iran," the officials said, making any other group preferable to govern Syria, even al-Qaida or other radical Islamists. "Any of these groups would be less problematic for Israel than an Assad regime that is a puppet of Iran," the report quoted the officials as saying.
Last month, a senior Israeli intelligence official sounded a different tune, telling The Times of London that Israel preferred the survival of the Assad regime over the takeover of Syria by Islamist rebels.
"Better the devil we know than the demons we can only imagine if Syria falls into chaos and the extremists from across the Arab world gain a foothold there," the official was quoted as saying in an article published on May 17.
Meanwhile, Defense Minister Moshe (Bogie) Ya'alon said on Monday that Israel was closely monitoring whether Russia would supply Assad with the S-300 anti-aircraft missile system. According to Ya'alon, Russia will not deliver the S-300 to Assad until 2014, if at all.
The lesser of two evils is still evil. And who says that al-Qaeda is necessarily an improvement on Bashar al-Assad?
Al-Assad is the devil we know, who knows what or who al-Qaeda may invite into the tent.
And in the many-pronged assault on the existing regime in Syria, it is not at all certain which faction may end up in the position of “victor”. Al-Qaeda by no means has any kind of “lock” on supremacy.
AlQaida and other anti-Assad factions are also anti-Christian and have a recent track record of exterminating Christians wherever they find them.
In short, all choices are bad, but it's been a very long time since the USA was attacked by Alawites, or Syrian Christians.
Maybe if he 'rebel forces' could guarantee total eradicaion of the AlQaida affiliates first ~
And there you have it.
Maybe if we hadn’t taken sides in that war it would have never happened, or Assad would have crushed those clowns immediately and not needed His-bowl-la or Iran to help him.
In any case, he’s still the best out of a bunch of bad choices. Once this thing is over, he’ll have better control over the country and might even be willing to cut deals with Israel, just as Sadat was able to do after the 73 war.
Great. Try this one on for size, @ssholes:
Obama administration officials: Al-Qaida preferable over Israel
The Israelis want a Sunni regime in Damascus. Okay, let's say that this is true.
Is that same end-game in the interests of the American people?
Israel does not speak with a single voice, being a genuine representative republic. Until we hear this same unequivocal high note from the Israeli foreign ministry I'll have a hard time believing this.
It sure seems that there's a hotly contested debate there over this issue.
Perhaps for Israel, although I still cannot see how.
As far as the U.S. goes, Asshat has never directly attacked our homeland - al Qaeda has.
I think you are right in that the Israelis are trying to decide the best strategy and outcome. I have also read that Israeli policy if Assad is overthrown is to go in and take or destroy wmds because al-Qaida, hamas, Hezbollah et al MUST not be allowed to have those weapons. To me a stalemate seems best but eventually one side will win and Israeli leadership needs to decide which devil is best.
I’m guessing that the Christians living there don’t agree.
Assuming Assad survives he’s going to spend the better part of a decade rebuilding the infrastructure of Syria, while under persistent insurgent attacks.
Verses
Al Quada will fracture support to Hezbolah. But, they then likely take the soon to be disillusioned revolutionaries and send them head long against Israel. Feeding the revolutionaries to the guns.
=> Six to one, half a dozen to another.
Looks like some people in Israel are as treasonous as Obama is. They lived in peace with Asshat for decades.
As for Al-Qaeda, Syrian government is probably the last major obstacle in creating their Great Caliphate of Middle East and North Africa.
As soon as Al-Qaeda will have a massive radical sunni nation-state it won’t tolerate the very existence of Israel with all the necessary means to eradicate the Jewish state along with Iran’s Shias and Middle East Christians.
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