Iran attacked Israel from Syria without notifying Damascus – report

Times of Israel ^ | 10 May 2018, 10:40 pm | TOI staff

[Zhang Fei]

Iranian forces in Syria did not ask the Syrian government, or even notify Syrian leaders, before launching 20 missiles at Israel just after midnight on Thursday, Fox News reported.

“It appears that the regime of Bashar Assad of Syria wants to distance itself from Iran’s military activity in its very own back yard,” Fox News’s David Lee Miller reported from the Golan Heights on Thursday.

Miller said that Fox News had learn from European sources that, “The Iranian major general in charge of the Al-Quds Force in Syria, Qassem Soleimani, launched last night’s attack against Israel without the knowledge or the consent of the Assad regime.”

He went on to say that the Syrian claim came, “Despite the fact that some Syrian military personnel took part in the aggression.” It was not clear if he was referring to the rocket fire against Israel or the Syrian anti-aircraft fire that was later directed at the Israeli air force.

Sources told Fox News that the Soleimani was not accountable to Damascus and could act freely without having to report to Syrian officials.

The message from Syria may be a way of avoiding further retaliation from Israel.

Among the sites hit were Syrian air defenses, and Netanyahu said that was only because Assad had ignored his warning.

“Yesterday I conveyed a clear message to the Assad regime: Our activity is directed against Iranian targets in Syria. But if the Syrian army takes action against us, we will act against it,” Netanyahu warned. “That is exactly what happened yesterday, Syrian army batteries launched ground-to-air missiles against us, and therefore we hit them.”

The military earlier said it targeted a number of Syrian air defense systems — SA-5, SA-2, SA-22, and SA-17 batteries — that had fired at Israeli planes, despite the military’s ... warning

[Zhang Fei]

“Okay, I get it that you two believe that the USA is waging war against Syria for purely altruistic reasons.”

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Altruism has nothing to do with it. Deterrence, yes. Revenge, yes. Helping our allies, yes. Altruism has a place in foreign policy, but it’s not even the secondary motive at work here. If we were altruistic, then the question would be altruism vis-a-vis which party? If Sunni Arabs, we’d oust Assad. If Kurds, we’d stand up a Kurdish state. If Alawites, we’d crush the Sunni Arab and Kurdish rebels.

[Zhang Fei]

Wikipedia is edited by liberals. Liberals think anyone not far left is alt right. Ben Shapiro is considered alt right by liberals. https://www.vox.com/the-big-idea/2018/5/10/17338290/intellectual-dark-web-rogan-peterson-harris-times-weiss

Lately, anyone shilling for the Russians is also considered alt right.

[MeganC]

Okay, so what did Syria do to the USA or one of our allies that merited facilitating a civil war and then following it up with airstrikes and missile strikes?

[Zhang Fei]

“Okay, so what did Syria do to the USA or one of our allies that merited facilitating a civil war and then following it up with airstrikes and missile strikes?”

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Syria was involved in the deaths of 200+ Marine peacekeepers in Lebanon, the harboring and sponsorship of terrorist movements (DFLP, PFLP, PLO, et al) that killed dozens of Americans and the sponsorship of terrorists in Iraq that killed thousands of GI’s. We are justified in our intervention up to the point of the removal of the Assad clan from power.

[MeganC]

Oh FFS you’re acting like one of the damned liberals by attacking the source of the facts and not bothering to discuss the facts.

Knock it off.

[MeganC]

So you’re citing something that happened before I was born and long before Assad took charge of Syria as a reason to overthrow Assad?

That’s absurd.

[Zhang Fei]

“Okay, so what did Syria do to the USA or one of our allies that merited facilitating a civil war and then following it up with airstrikes and missile strikes?”

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Note also that Syria has fought multiple wars with Israel at the end of which Israel and its Jewish population would literally have been wiped off the map if it lost. As to facilitating civil war in Syria - it wasn’t started by the US. Sunni Arabs have been revolting against Alawite rule for over 50 years, since Salah Jadid, the first Alawite ruler of Syria, took power in 1965. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salah_Jadid

[Zhang Fei]

“Oh FFS you’re acting like one of the damned liberals by attacking the source of the facts and not bothering to discuss the facts.

Knock it off.”

---

First off - how would a pipeline benefit the US? I understand the Halliburton theory - which is that private companies are paying off key players in the government so they can benefit from starting a war. But this kind of accusation could generically apply to every single war that’s ever been fought. Where’s their proof? Where’s the smoking gun? Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof. The onus is not on me to prove a negative - it’s on you to prove a positive. Show me the tape recordings where leaders are saying this is against American interests, but I am doing it for the money.

[MeganC]

Your narrative simply doesn’t mesh with the actual facts of the US involvement in Syria since 2011.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-syria-obama-order/obama-authorizes-secret-support-for-syrian-rebels-idUSBRE8701OK20120802

[MeganC]

“First off - how would a pipeline benefit the US?”

First, read up on the strategic situation involving the European gas market being controlled by the Russians and then go do your own reading and research on why the Qatar-to-Europe gas pipeline would diminish that Russian power.

Then ask yourself if it’s just a total coincidence that the US had no cares about Syria prior to their refusal to allow Qatar and Saudi Arabia to build a pipeline across Syria.

https://www.politico.eu/article/why-the-arabs-dont-want-us-in-syria-mideast-conflict-oil-intervention/

[Zhang Fei]

“So you’re citing something that happened before I was born and long before Assad took charge of Syria as a reason to overthrow Assad?

That’s absurd.”

---

Things aren’t absurd just because you say they are. And plenty of things happened before you were born that are of major significance vis-a-vis current events despite having occurred before you graced us with your august presence. The Arabs continue to be an existential threat to Israel despite the fact that it was established all the way back in 1948. In fact, 9/11 was the result of events that occurred over a thousand years before these United States were born.

[MeganC]

We don’t start wars in the present over acts that happened over thirty years ago. That’s nonsense.

[Zhang Fei]

“First, read up on the strategic situation involving the European gas market being controlled by the Russians and then go do your own reading and research on why the Qatar-to-Europe gas pipeline would diminish that Russian power.

Then ask yourself if it’s just a total coincidence that the US had no cares about Syria prior to their refusal to allow Qatar and Saudi Arabia to build a pipeline across Syria.”

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Politico? RFK Jr? John Prados? Here’s John Prados on John Kerry’s claims about widespread American atrocities in Vietnam:

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https://www.nationalreview.com/2004/09/seared-my-memory-mackubin-thomas-owens/
In the August 30 TNR Online, historian John Prados writes regarding the WSI atrocity accounts that “a handful of individual stories may have been called into question, but the main thrust of the [WSI] testimonies–that American atrocities were widespread in Vietnam–is today beyond dispute. Indeed the emergence of new evidence during the last 30 years has only solidified the winter soldiers’ overall case.

[MeganC]

Attacking the source again? I’m done with you.

Have a nice weekend.

- Megan

[Zhang Fei]

“We don’t start wars in the present over acts that happened over thirty years ago. That’s nonsense.”

---

Say someone robs a victim, beats him up and leaves him for dead. This person is free to forgive the person who assaulted him. But in any event, the law will find and prosecute the person who carried out this act. In the international arena, there is no cop who will find and punish the perp. That is why states have to do it themselves. Because the lack of such punishment will tempt other states to do the same. 9/11 occurred because Clinton failed to kill bin Laden when he had the chance.

Catching a violent perp after 30 years is par for the course. There is no statute of limitations for violent felonies. And for someone who attempts to erase an entire nation and people from the map - he really needs to be hunted down and killed.

[Zhang Fei]

“Attacking the source again? I’m done with you.

Have a nice weekend.

- Megan”

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Of course. Because his arguments rest on factual assertions that would take many hours to check, one by one, given that the web is dominated by liberal and anti-American websites. Wouldn’t you be happier at Democratic Underground?

[Zhang Fei]

“Your narrative simply doesn’t mesh with the actual facts of the US involvement in Syria since 2011.”

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Obama authorized aid in 2012. Given that Syria had been complicit in funneling Sunni Arab jihadists to Iraq to kill GI’s, he was fully-justified in doing so to get some payback. For Assad, this was blowback. The Sunni Arab jihadists he had sponsored were now attacking his government. Assad played with fire and got burnt.

[Zhang Fei]

“Attacking the source again? I’m done with you.

Have a nice weekend.

- Megan”

---

Note that I’m not saying that this guy beats his wife or he’s a bank robber. I’m saying that he has a history of making dubious claims. My question for you is how many hours you have spent verifying his claims. Because extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof. Where is the smoking gun?

[AdmSmith]

Agree, and it is not easy to determine the most efficient strategy.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/in-syria-an-accidental-bulwark-against-iran-shows-confusion-of-trump-policy/2018/05/12/458ed726-4ed7-11e8-af46-b1d6dc0d9bfe_story.html

[SJackson]

Middle East and terrorism, occasional political and Jewish issues Ping List. High Volume

If you’d like to be on or off, please FR mail me.

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