Obama's call was the green light for Israel to support Syrian and non-Syrian rebels. Syrian official statements claim that Israel has been closely coordinating with the rebels.
Israeli statements claim theirs is confined to "humanitarian" support to "moderate" Syrian opposition, which the U.S. has already pledged to train and arm in Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Turkey. A significant portion of the $64 billion earmarked for conflicts abroad in the budget legislation signed by Obama on December 19 will go to these "moderates."
Both Israel and the U.S. have no headaches about whether the "moderates" would remain as such after being armed with lethal weapons or whether it remains appropriate to call them "opposition."
But the Israeli "humanitarian" claim is challenged by the fact that Israel is the only neighbouring country that still closes its doors to Syrian civilian refugees while keeping its doors wide open to the wounded rebels who are treated in Israeli hospitals and allowed to return to the battle front after recovery.
IS close to Israeli borders
The Israeli foreign ministry on last September 3 confirmed that the U.S. journalist Steven Sotloff whom the IS had beheaded was an Israeli citizen as well. In a speech addressed to Sotloff's family, Netanyahu condemned the IS as a "branch" of a "poisonous tree" and a "tentacle" of a "violent Islamist terrorism."
On the same day Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon officially outlawed the IS and anyone associating with it.
On September 10, Netanyahu convened an urgent security meeting to prepare for the possible danger of the IS advancing closer to the Israeli border, a prospect confirmed by the latest battles for power between the IS and the al-Nusra Front on the southern Syrian-Lebanese borders and in southern Syria, within the artillery range of Israeli forces.
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
2
1
