Israel injected itself in Syria's civil war over the weekend bombing suspected targets near Damascus, purportedly a weapons compound of surface to surface missiles that Israeli officials said could be transferred into Lebanon and into the hands of Hezbollah, the main opposition to Israel in Lebanon.
The Syrian Foreign Ministry called the Israeli strikes an "act of aggression" and sent a letter in protest to the United Nations while vowing to strike back at Israel. But the chances of retaliatory strikes by the Assad regime or its ally Hezbollah in Lebanon against Israel are slim and unlikely.
But let's call this latest Israeli strike into Syria for what it is; a pre-emptive strike, clearly an act of aggression where there was no imminent threat to Israel, the only legal basis under the U.N. Charter for a nation to take pre-emptive action to defend itself.
Israel, of course gets away with these pre-emptive strikes because the U.S. will always prevent the U.N. Security Council from taking action against Israel, plus the U.S. reflexively defends Israel for any acts it commits, so the Israeli's are effectively immune from retaliatory strikes against it save for the occasional inaccurate Scud type missile fired by Hamas into Israel from Gaza or southern Lebanon, presumably from Hezbollah.
Yet the idea that Israel is somehow threatened by Syria, Iran or any other nation in the Middle East is ludicrous. Israel has the most advanced, modern conventional weaponry and the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) is the best trained and most lethal fighting force in the region. Israel also has a nuclear arsenal that assures its ultimate security.
So any bleating coming from Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of threats to Israel is all for show. Mean while he and his government demonize Iran, its Hezbollah ally in Lebanon and unnecessarily bombs Syria and calls it a "defensive measure".
Again, with the U.S. as Israel's prime benefactor and defender in whatever action Israel undertakes makes it immune from any real retaliation against it and essentially free to do as it pleases. No other country in the world has such immunity.
The real problem that exists is Israel could still pre-emptively attack Iran's nuclear facilities (without first notifying the U.S. knowing it would always come to Israel's defense) that would likely precipitate a wider war, force Iran to retaliate with its own accurate missiles against Israel proper, disrupt world oil supplies and probably create a world wide economic catastrophe.
Such an attack by Israel on Iran would make the latest Israeli attacks on Syria seem like child's play.
The only country that could prevent such a scenario is the U.S. but only if Israel first consults with the U.S. on its plans before such an attack takes place whereby the U.S. could dissuade the Israeli's from carrying it out. Let's remember Netanyahu has said Israel is responsible for defending itself and would act on its own if necessary without first notifying the U.S. (and knowing the U.S. would under all circumstances defend any Israeli actions).
This is the ultimate "tail wagging the dog" scenario making Israel and the U.S. the greatest threats to world stability.
