Israel: America's Mad Dog in Syria

March 20, 2017 (Tony Cartalucci - NEO) - Israel has played an increasingly provocative role in the destructive conflict unfolding within and along Syria's borders since 2011. To many observers, it appears Israeli policy borders between opportunistic and unilateral aggression. In reality, Israel's role in the Syrian conflict fits a much larger and long-term pattern with Anglo-American plans not only for Syria but for the entire region.

A more recent row between Israel and Syria was the reported incursion of Israeli warplanes into Syrian airspace, including attacks near the eastern Syrian city of Palmyra. Palmyra hosts an ongoing battle between Syrian forces and the self-proclaimed "Islamic State" (ISIS) terrorist organization. Israeli airstrikes against Syrian forces - then - would have facilitated ISIS operations in the region.

Israel is a State Sponsor of Terror, Not a Champion Against it

Israel has existed as a nation-sized, defacto forward operating base for Anglo-American interests since its creation in the 20th century. It has pursued aggressive regional policies that have intentionally pitted itself against its neighbors as a means of maintaining a Western foothold and point of leverage in North Africa and the Middle East for decades.

Ongoing conflicts between Israel and Palestine are fueled by an orchestrated strategy of tension between a manipulated Israeli population and controlled opposition - Hamas - politically backed, armed, and funded by Israel's own regional collaborators including Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

When proxy military operations began against the Syrian state in 2011 under the cover of the US-engineered "Arab Spring," Israel along with Jordan and Turkey, played a direct role in backing militants and undermining Damascus.

While Jordan has played a more passive role, and Turkey a more direct role in facilitating proxy militant forces, Israel has played the role of "unilateral provocateur." While Turkish, US, and other "coalition" forces are unable to directly attack Syrian forces, Israel - posing as a unilateral regional player - can and has done so regularly since 2012.

CNN in its article, "Israeli jets strike inside Syria; military site near Palmyra reportedly targeted," would note:

In November 2012, Israel fired warning shots toward Syria after a mortar shell hit an Israeli military post, the first time Israel had fired on Syria across the Golan Heights since the 1973 Yom Kippur War.

Israeli jets have been striking targets in Syria since at least 2013, when US officials told CNN they believed IDF jets had hit targets inside Syrian territory.

CNN would also report:

Israeli strikes may have gone as far inside Syria as the capital. In 2014, the Syrian government and an opposition group both said an IDF strike had hit Damascus' suburbs and airport.

And while Israeli politicians and military officials claim their aggression seeks to stop the transfer of weapons to terrorist organizations, organizations they deem as "terrorist" are in fact the sole forces within Syria fighting actual, internationally recognized terrorist organizations including Al Qaeda, its  various subsidiaries and affiliates, as well as the Islamic State itself.

Paradoxically, these genuinely terrorist organizations have existed along Israel's border enjoying defacto protection from Israeli forces from Syrian military operations.

Israel's Role as America's "Mad Dog" is No Secret 

Israel's geopolitical role as "unilateral mad dog" has been a matter of stated US policy since at least the 1980s - and in specific reference to America's repeated attempts to undermine and overthrow the Syrian state amid much larger objectives aimed at Iran and the region as a whole.

A 1983 document - part of a deluge of recently declassified papers released to the public - signed by former CIA officer Graham Fuller titled, "Bringing Real Muscle to Bear Against Syria" (PDF), states (their emphasis):

Syria at present has a hammerlock on US interests both in Lebanon and in the Gulf -- through closure of Iraq's pipeline thereby threatening Iraqi internationalization of the [Iran-Iraq] war. The US should consider sharply escalating the pressures against Assad [Sr.] through covertly orchestrating simultaneous military threats against Syria from three border states hostile to Syria: Iraq, Israel and Turkey. 

The report also states:

If Israel were to increase tensions against Syria simultaneously with an Iraqi initiative, the pressures on Assad would escalate rapidly. A Turkish move would psychologically press him further. 

In 2009, US corporate-financier funded policy think tank, the Brookings Institution, would publish a lengthy paper titled, "Which Path to Persia?: Options for a New American Strategy toward Iran" (PDF), in which, once again, the use of Israel as an apparently "unilateral aggressor" was discussed in detail.

US Aid to Israel Aids Who and Toward What End?

September 22, 2016 (Tony Cartalucci - NEO) - Recently, the United States just renewed military aid to Israel in a decade-long, $38 billion deal - the largest of its kind in American history. It represents a significant increase in aid, roughly $3.8 billion a year - expected to be supplemented by additional assistance through US Congress - up from $3 billion per year previously.

The Atlantic in an article titled, "Why Does the United States Give So Much Money to Israel?," attempted to explain the reasoning behind the otherwise unreasonable and unprecedented assistance by claiming:

Defenders of the deal would say it’s necessary. Dalton described the uptick in spending as a natural extension of the long-standing relationship between the United States and Israel, “as well as close ties between those countries and their peoples.” She described the “fraught neighborhood” surrounding Israel: war-torn Syria to the northeast, Hezbollah-influenced Lebanon to the north, and an Islamist insurgency in Egypt’s Sinai to the south, all of which help explain the historically high promise of $5 billion in missile funding over the next 10 years.

However, experienced geopolitical analysts will point out that the United States does not have "friends," "allies," or "relationships" - only interests and those who serve them. And while the Atlantic attempts to explain the deal as a means of maintaining a "relationship," it and other publications admit that there are "strings attached." If examined carefully, these strings reveals just what interests this supposed "relationship" serves.

CNBC would say just that in its article, "Big US military aid package to Israel has strings attached," claiming:

...it's structured so that more Israeli defense spending goes to U.S. companies. Israel's long-standing special arrangement for funds from the United States previously allowed Israel to spend 26 percent of the money in Israel — on Israeli-made defense products. But that provision is being phased out over the first five years of the deal.

In other words, the ten year, $38 billion aid package is first and foremost welfare for US defense contractors, not Israel whose own defense spending adds up to $16 billion per year - dwarfing annual US "aid." The deal is to encourage further Israeli dependency on America - dependency that lends Washington further leverage over both Israel and the region.

Who is Israel's Biggest Enemy?

Its government and their foreign sponsors.

May 10, 2016 (Tony Cartalucci - NEO) - The ongoing conflict consuming the Middle East is the result of Western hegemonic designs aimed at reordering the region and beyond, into a geopolitical structure more suitable for its own interests. In accomplishing this, the centers of power across the West - Washington, Wall Street, London, and Brussels - have elected several nations as intermediaries through which various aspects of this process are being implemented.

Saudi Arabia has contributed significantly in the indoctrination, financing, and arming of terrorists sent across the region and indeed the world. Turkey has likewise served in arming and supplying terrorists, as well as staging them ahead of operations launched into Syrian territory and even resupplying them once in Syrian territory. To a lesser but still notable extent, Jordan has done this as well.

One nation often either neglected or analyzed inappropriately - but very much involved - is Israel.

The Israeli Regime's Role 

The government of Israel has also colluded with the West regarding the ongoing conflict across the Middle East, likely in a way most Israelis are either not aware of or are not in support of.

Israel would be implicated in Pulitzer Prize-winning veteran journalist Seymour Hersh's 2007 article, "The Redirection," in which he reported:

To undermine Iran, which is predominantly Shiite, the Bush Administration has decided, in effect, to reconfigure its priorities in the Middle East. In Lebanon, the Administration has coöperated with Saudi Arabia’s government, which is Sunni, in clandestine operations that are intended to weaken Hezbollah, the Shiite organization that is backed by Iran. The U.S. has also taken part in clandestine operations aimed at Iran and its ally Syria. A by-product of these activities has been the bolstering of Sunni extremist groups that espouse a militant vision of Islam and are hostile to America and sympathetic to Al Qaeda.

The report would go on to reveal the relationship between the government in Israel and state sponsors of terrorism including Saudi Arabia, stating:

The policy shift has brought Saudi Arabia and Israel into a new strategic embrace, largely because both countries see Iran as an existential threat. They have been involved in direct talks, and the Saudis, who believe that greater stability in Israel and Palestine will give Iran less leverage in the region, have become more involved in Arab-Israeli negotiations.

The article, published years before the so-called "Arab Spring" in 2011 after which the war in Syria began, would turn out to be prophetic. Israel has worked, albeit more quietly, in tandem with the United States, Turkey, and just as Hersh warned, Saudi Arabia, to wage a devastating proxy war against Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Iran, and to some extent even Russia.

Israel's borders and safe havens established just beyond them, particularly in the illegally occupied Golan Heights, harbor US State Department-listed terrorist organizations including the Al Nusra Front. On multiple occasions Israel's own press covered incidents where the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) was caught trafficking Nusra fighters back and forth over their border with Syria in ambulances.

Pentagon Admits that Israel is a Nuclear Power

March 31, 2015 (Vladimir Platov - NEO) - In early February, the Pentagon declassified reports on Israel’s nuclear weapons program which was carried out until 1987. According to these documents, Israeli scientists were capable of producing a hydrogen bomb by that time. Although these facts were largely ignored by the Western media, some analysts have noticed that the declassification of these secret reports suspiciously coincided with the recent, rapidly deteriorating relationship between the US and Israel. As Tel Aviv started a massive campaign of criticism aimed at the Obama administration, both in the US media and worldwide, the Pentagon’s revelations were quick to follow. It is also noteworthy that only the facts on the Israeli nuclear weapons program were declassified, while information regarding similar activities of NATO allies (in particular Italy, France, and West Germany) remained locked up.

The 386 page report “Сritical technology assessment in Israel and Nato nations,” was prepared in 1987 by the Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA) and examined the capabilities Israel had already had at that time to produce nuclear weapons. In particular, the study underlines the fact that Israel’s secret laboratories, engaged in the development of an atomic bomb, were on par with the key research nuclear arsenals of the US: Los Alamos, Lawrence Livermore and Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

According to this report, by the mid-80s Israeli experts were at the same stage of research and development of various nuclear weapons the hydrogen bomb in particular, reached by American scientists between 1955-1960. IDA experts were courageous enough to recognize that in certain areas the Israelis have even surpassed their American colleagues of the time, in particular those working in the “Raphael” Israeli secret lab, who had managed to propose unconventional ways of achieving nuclear fission that would have allowed them to create their own version of the hydrogen bomb.

Global Threat? US Policymakers Admit Iran is Defending Itself

March 16, 2015 (Tony Cartalucci - NEO) - US policymakers admit that Iran's strategy is "largely defensive," and both aggressive and defensive tendencies are largely in response to US policy in the Middle East and Central Asia.

The US-based RAND Corporation, which describes itself as "a nonprofit institution that helps improve policy and decisionmaking through research and analysis," produced a report in 2009 for the US Air Force titled, "Dangerous But Not Omnipotent : Exploring the Reach and Limitations of Iranian Power in the Middle East," examining the structure and posture of Iran's military, including its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and weapons both present, and possible future, it seeks to secure its borders and interests with against external aggression.

The report admits that:

Iran’s strategy is largely defensive, but with some offensive elements. Iran’s strategy of protecting the regime against internal threats, deterring aggression, safeguarding the homeland if aggression occurs, and extending influence is in large part a defensive one that also serves some aggressive tendencies when coupled with expressions of Iranian regional aspirations. It is in part a response to U.S. policy pronouncements and posture in the region, especially since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. The Iranian leadership takes very seriously the threat of invasion given the open discussion in the United States of regime change, speeches defining Iran as part of the “axis of evil,” and efforts by U.S. forces to secure base access in states surrounding Iran.

Such a narrative stands in direct contradiction of daily propaganda emanating from Western media monopolies portraying Iran as a global threat to peace and stability, and in particular, "bent on" attacking the US and its allies, particularly Israel, for no other reason but fulfilling fanatical, ideological hatred.

The recent political theater centered around the US and Israel, portrays a US attempting to accommodate Iran versus an Israel fighting an existential battle against a determined aggressor. Behind the rhetoric, however, the RAND Corporation lays out the specific facts, revealing a reality quite to the contrary.

It reveals an embattled, besieged Iran seeking to stave off foreign encirclement, destabilization, and literal invasion. RAND openly notes that the conflict is not about "defending" Israel or preserving US national security, but instead, centered on America's attempts to project power into the Middle East - half a world away from its own shores, and Iran's attempts to resist foreign hegemony.

Obama-Netanyahu "Fallout" is Theater - Planned in 2009

US and Israel attempting to establish feigned "diplomatic row" to justify "unilateral" Israeli attack on Iran.

March 2, 2015 (Tony Cartalucci - LD) - In a 2009 US policy paper published by the corporate-financier funded Brookings Institution, it was made clear that the US was determined to provoke Iran into a conflict and effect regime change at any cost - up to and including an outright military invasion and occupation of Iran with US troops.

However, before it came to that, the Brookings Institution's policymakers explored other options including fomenting US-backed political unrest coupled with covert, violent force, the use of US State Department listed foreign terrorist organizations to carry out assassinations and attacks within Iran, and limited airstrikes carried out by either the US or Israel, or both.

In retropspect, 6 years on, all of these tricks have not only been attempted to one degree or another in Iran, but have been demonstrably employed in neighboring Syria to diminish its strength - which according to Brookings - is a necessary prerequisite before waging war on Iran.

And of particular interest - considering what appears to be a growing diplomatic row between the United States and Israel - is just how precisely the US planned to covertly back what would be made to appear as a "unilateral" Israeli first strike on Iran - an attack that appears to be in the process of being justified through a carefully orchestrated propaganda campaign now unfolding.

From the Mouths of US Policymakers Themselves 

The Brookings Institution's 2009 policy paper titled, "Which Path to Persia? Options for a New American Strategy Toward Iran," makes clear that negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program is merely theater, and that it will be used to give the world the impression that the United States explored all possible "peaceful" options before resorting to violent regime change.  The report states specifically that:

...any military operation against Iran will likely be very unpopular around the world and require the proper international context— both to ensure the logistical support the operation would require and to minimize the blowback from it. The best way to minimize international opprobrium and maximize support (however, grudging or covert) is to strike only when there is a widespread conviction that the Iranians were given but then rejected a superb offer—one so good that only a regime determined to acquire nuclear weapons and acquire them for the wrong reasons would turn it down. Under those circumstances, the United States (or Israel) could portray its operations as taken in sorrow, not anger, and at least some in the international community would conclude that the Iranians “brought it on themselves” by refusing a very good deal.

Of course, Iran - as admitted to by Brookings themselves - is not governed by irrational leadership, and would not turn down a genuinely "superb offer." The Brookings Institution admits openly that the US pursues a dual track foreign policy - one for public consumption (making "superb offers") and another aimed at ensuring Iran looks as unreasonable as possible.

Old Tricks, Old Dogs: Israeli Attacks on Syria

December 9, 2014 (Tony Cartalucci - NEO) - Israel has once again conducted air strikes against the Syrian government and its people, in yet another act of unprovoked aggression and international criminality. The New York Times would report in their article, "Syria Reports New Strikes From Israel Near Capital," that: 

Israeli warplanes struck at least two areas near Damascus on Sunday, the Syrian Armed Forces General Command said in a statement, apparently ending a months long hiatus in strikes attributed to Israel against sophisticated weaponry destined for Hezbollah in Lebanon.  

Israeli officials refused to confirm or deny the latest reports from Syria, maintaining a policy of ambiguity that is meant to allow the other side to save face and to stave off retaliation.

Strikes hit government facilities in the capital as well as Damascus International Airport. One must wonder why Israel attacks what it has called "regional threats" in Damascus when it allows terrorist groups including Al Qaeda's Al Nusra Front to park tanks along its borders. 

Israel Strikes At Only Viable Nation Fighting ISIS in Region 

At this current juncture in the Syrian crisis the illusion of "moderate rebels" has so utterly evaporated that even groups the US supposedly "vetted" and armed with sophisticated anti-tank weapons are now openly aligned with the so-called Islamic State (ISIS). The implications of this are, and as the Syrian government has said since 2011, that the Syrian government is fighting a battle not against its own people or "pro-democracy" forces, but heavily armed sectarian extremists either flying the flag of Al Qaeda, or openly having pledged allegiance to it. 

It becomes increasingly difficult for casual observers then, to understand why nations like Israel are still conducting attacks directly against the government of Syria while providing defacto sanctuaries for ISIS terrorists and their affiliates along their border with Syria in the occupied Golan Heights. It would appear to the casual observer that Israel, Al Qaeda, and ISIS are in fact in league, and the conflict raging within Syria is instead a proxy war being waged from beyond its borders rather than solely within them.

Indeed, these implications are not only logical considering Israel's recent attacks, the latest in a series of attacks it has carried out in support of terrorists and against the Syrian government since 2011, but they are also backed up with documented evidence from as early as 2007. However, Israel does not act alone. 


Together, the US, Saudi Arabia, and Israel openly conspired to use sectarian militants including Al Qaeda to wage a regional proxy war against Iran and its allies - including against both Syria and Hezbollah in Lebanon. This explains why Israel has attacked both the Syrian government and Hezbollah even as both wage war on Al Qaeda, ISIS, and their affiliates.

Compounding the Israeli regime's criminality is the fact that the only forces providing a defense for regional minorities, including Christians, Jews, Druzes, and secular Muslims of all sects, is in fact Hezbollah and the Syrian Arab Army. Attacks on either undermine their ability to stem what will otherwise be unhinged regional genocide carried out by US, Saudi, Israeli, and even Qatari-backed sectarian militants. 

Beware: Israel the Eager Provocateur

August 8, 2014 (Tony Cartalucci - NEO) - With hostilities once again erupting between Israeli forces and Palestine, onlookers must keep in mind the greater agenda in which the current violence is playing out and the stated agenda of achieving hegemony over the Middle East in which Israel plays a pivotal role - as the "unilateral aggressor."

FOB Israel 

Of course, Israel does nothing unilaterally. It is a stunted, militaristic faux-state that depends entirely on the West for its continued existence. From the funds it builds its military with, to the very hardware it buys and maintains, starting from the day the modern state of Israel was founded up to and including today, Israel is in reality a state-sized forward operating base (FOB). Wikipedia defines a FOB as follows:

"The base may be used for an extended period of time. FOBs are traditionally supported by Main Operating Bases that are required to provide backup support to them.[citation needed] An FOB also improves reaction time to local areas as opposed to having all troops on the main operating base."  

As such, Israel's constant and otherwise irrational belligerence makes perfect sense. An FOB's priorities are not prosperity and peace as would a nation's, but rather to engage forward into enemy territory. The trick over the years has been to portray Israel as a nation, while propping up its constant belligerence and aggression as "self-defense." To keep this illusion in motion, Israel and its regional and Western collaborators have even created full-time enemies, including Hamas itself - a creation of Israeli intelligence and to this day primarily propped up by Saudi Arabia and Qatar, both of which are defacto regional partners with the West and of course Israel itself.

The Wall Street Journal reported in their article, "How Israel Helped to Spawn Hamas," that (emphasis added): 

"Hamas, to my great regret, is Israel's creation," says Mr. Cohen, a Tunisian-born Jew who worked in Gaza for more than two decades. Responsible for religious affairs in the region until 1994, Mr. Cohen watched the Islamist movement take shape, muscle aside secular Palestinian rivals and then morph into what is today Hamas, a militant group that is sworn to Israel's destruction.

Instead of trying to curb Gaza's Islamists from the outset, says Mr. Cohen, Israel for years tolerated and, in some cases, encouraged them as a counterweight to the secular nationalists of the Palestine Liberation Organization and its dominant faction, Yasser Arafat's Fatah. Israel cooperated with a crippled, half-blind cleric named Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, even as he was laying the foundations for what would become Hamas. Sheikh Yassin continues to inspire militants today; during the recent war in Gaza, Hamas fighters confronted Israeli troops with "Yassins," primitive rocket-propelled grenades named in honor of the cleric.

This is in fact exactly what Hamas is still being used today for - to counter real opposition movements by dividing against each other different factions of Muslims and secular organizations alike, in confusion and armed combat, preventing a greater, unified front against Western expansion and exploitation throughout the region. Extremist groups closely aligned to Hamas, including Al Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood, would flood into Iraq during the US occupation to "serendipitously" disrupt united Sunni-Shia'a resistance, and create bloody infighting that broke the back of meaningful opposition against foreign occupation. The same method is being used again in Syria, and with the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria's (ISIS) incursion into Iraq weeks ago, yet again against Baghdad. 

The Plundering of South Sudan

US AFRICOM, Israel, and Uganda's Dictator-for-Life Yoweri Museveni set up in South Sudan, inflame conflict, push out China and prepare to take over oil. 

January 9, 2014 (LD) - RT's report "Who is to blame for the crisis in South Sudan?" gave a succinct background on the warring factions inside the new "nation" of South Sudan and the Western genesis of the conflict. The report would state: 

The SPLM has received support from the US and Israel throughout the duration of the civil war fought between southern rebels and Khartoum, which has historically had unfriendly relations with the West and has moved very closely to China in recent times to jointly develop the country’s oil wealth prior to the separation. Romantic notions for self-determination did not motivate the West to support southern secession; the objective was to partition Sudan and deprive Khartoum of economically relevant territory in the south where most of the oil fields lie. In exchange for the financial, material, political, and diplomatic support received from the West, the new government in Juba endorsed a ‘Faustian pact’ with its sponsors to open its economy to international finance capital and multinational interests. The government in Juba even applied for IMF membership before it had even officially gained independence from Sudan.

The piece would continue by laying out the current dilemma for the West: 

Despite supporting the South’s independence with diplomatic muscle and military aid, the United States has been unable to gain a foothold in the country’s oil sector; Juba’s crippled economy remains dominated by Asian companies, primarily from China. South Sudan must rely on pipelines that run through Khartoum to export its oil, and the two countries produced around 115,000 barrels of oil per day in 2012, less than half the volume produced in the years before South Sudan's independence. Both sides have nearly gone to war over disputed oil fields that straddle a poorly demarcated border. Judging from the poor economic performance of both countries since the partition and the dramatic loss of the life in the ongoing crisis, the experiment of South Sudanese independence is failing. 

Image: Violence predictably is centered around currently 

Chinese-controlled oil infrastructure. The goal is to have 

violence drive the Chinese out just as was done by NATO 

in Libya.

The piece would go on to note that peace deals reached leaving Sudan intact could have avoided the deadly conflict now raging - and that of course is correct. However, peace is not and never was the goal of the West and its involvement in Africa - economic gain is.

Precisely because China still maintains extensive holdings in Sudan and South Sudan's oil infrastructure, the conflict will be brought to a fevered pitch - and unsurprisingly the conflict's epicenter corresponds with South Sudan's primary oil producing regions. If and when the Chinese are pushed out of South Sudan, the West will continue either across the border to establish routes for exporting their newly gained oil wealth from the landlocked country, or proceed through Kenya with or without the current government in Nairobi's backing.

The BBC would report in their article, "China's oil fears over South Sudan fighting," that (emphasis added):

The stakes could not be higher for China, the largest investor in South Sudan's oil sector, as fierce fighting continues between forces loyal to President Salva Kiir and those of his former deputy. 

Some of the largest oil fields China operates are in areas controlled by fighters backing Riek Machar, the country's vice-president until he was sacked in July. 

Oil production has already dropped by 20% since the onset of the conflict three weeks ago and more than 300 Chinese workers have been evacuated. 

The spectre of their Libyan experience also weighs heavily on the Chinese minds - project after project now lies deserted because of heavy fighting during the Arab Spring uprising of 2011, inflicting huge losses on China.

Most telling of all is the BBC's reference to Libya - another nation destroyed by Western military aggression that saw both Russian and Chinese interests crumble overnight and replaced by Western corporations. While South Sudan's chaos is being orchestrated more covertly by the West, the final goal of pushing out the Chinese and taking over is the same.

Similar covert destabilization can be seen all across what the 2006 Strategic Studies Institute's report "String of Pearls: Meeting the Challenge of China's Rising Power across the Asian Littoral" calls China's "String of Perals." This includes US-backed militants attempting to carve off the province of Baluchistan from Pakistan where China has established a port at Gwadar and at another Chinese port in the state of Rakhine, Myanmar that has been the scene of brutal, genocidal violence carried out by "democracy icon" Aung San Suu Kyi's "saffron monks" against Rohingya refugees.

Setting Up Shop in South Sudan 

Tel Aviv Regime Strikes Syria, Again

Latest Israeli attack part of wider US-Saudi-Israeli strategy. 

November 1, 2013 (Tony Cartalucci) - Israel and its Western sponsors have admitted to an unprovoked airstrike in Syrian territory this week. This is the latest of several assaults Israeli planes have carried out against neighboring Syria over the past year. CNN, in its report, "Israeli planes strike Syrian military base, U.S. official says," admits: 

Israeli warplanes struck a military base near the Syrian port city of Latakia this week, an Obama administration official told CNN on Thursday. 

An explosion at a missile storage site in the area was reported in the Middle Eastern press, but an attack has not been confirmed by the Israeli government. 

The target, according to the Obama administration official, was missiles and related equipment the Israelis felt might be transferred to the Lebanon-based militant group Hezbollah. The official declined to be identified because of the sensitive nature of the information. 

There was some confusion about the timing of the attack, with some reports saying it happened Wednesday, and others saying Thursday. 

When asked for comment, an Israel Defense Forces spokeswoman told CNN: "We don't refer to foreign reports."

Israel's Haaretz newspaper claims in its article, "Report: Israel destroyed Hezbollah-bound missile shipment in Syria," that:

According to the unnamed source, the strike targeted a shipment of missiles and related equipment Israeli intelligence estimated were to be transferred to Hezbollah. 

Earlier on Thursday, citing anonymous sources, Al-Arabiya carried a similar report. 

It said that the strikes targeted an SA-8 surface-to-air missile shipment for Hezbollah and that the two targets were destroyed.

SA-8 missiles are used in air-defense to protect airspace, and are not offensive weapons, making the recent Israeli attack all the more an egregious act of aggression in direct violation of international law.

Israel's refusal to provide details to the press highlights the perceived impunity the rogue nation believes it operates with upon the international stage - striking beyond its borders without provocation, justification, or explanation. It is precisely because of this carefully cultivated belligerent posture that Israel has been chosen to carry out such attacks against Syria, despite it being only one of several nations currently involved in the arming, funding, and direction of terrorists flooding into Syria and miring the country in a now nearly 3 year long deadly conflict.

Use of Israel as "Unilateral" Aggressor Was Long-Planned

From Turkey with love: Another Israeli attack on Syria?

Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya

Russia Today

Prime Minister Erdogan and his AK Party government have a track record of being deceitful, especially in regards to both Israel and Syria. No one should be surprised to hear that Israel and Turkey are collaborating together against the Syrians. With the aim of tightening the front against Syria, President Obama even travelled to Israel in March 2013 to directly broker a quick rapprochement between the governments of Israel and Turkey. Getting a public nudge from the Obama Administration, Israel and Turkey would announce that their diplomatic row was over only two days after NATO announced it had put together contingency plans for operations in Syria on March 20, 2013. Even when relations were publicly sour between the Ankara and Tel Aviv, the two countries maintained military and commercial ties.

Despite the fact that Prime Minister Erdogan denounced Tel Aviv for attacking Syria, the first fruits of Israeli and Turkish collaboration became visible in May 2013 when Israeli warplanes attacked a Syrian military research facility in the town of Jamraya with US approval, as admitted by President Obama to Telemundo. Right after the Israeli attacks the Turkish and Israeli militaries launched simultaneous exercises on their respective borders with Syria. Although the military operations were presented as uncoordinated events, both Ankara and Tel Aviv were coordinating with one another in a military posture against Syria. The Israeli and Turkish moves on their borders with Syria were probably aimed at preventing Syria from responding through intimidation. The Turkish government would also put extra pressure on the Syrians by blaming them for a terrorist attack in the Turkish border town of Reyhanli, which the Turkish activist group of internet hackers named Redhack would be revealed was known about well in advance by Turkey’s Gendarmerie Intelligence.

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Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya is a sociologist, award-winning author, and noted geopolitical analyst

In Wake of US-Israeli Attack on Syria, UN Reveals Terrorists Not Government Used Sarin Gas

So-called "red line" both drawn and then crossed by US-Saudi-Israeli axis and their terrorist proxies. 

May 6, 2013 (LD) - The reasoning behind recent US-Israeli attacks on Syria has been undermined further as the UN reveals Western-backed terrorists, not the Syrian government, deployed sarin gas during the 2 year conflict. Reuters reported in their article, "U.N. has testimony that Syrian rebels used sarin gas: investigator," that:

U.N. human rights investigators have gathered testimony from casualties of Syria's civil war and medical staff indicating that rebel forces have used the nerve agent sarin, one of the lead investigators said on Sunday.

The United Nations independent commission of inquiry on Syria has not yet seen evidence of government forces having used chemical weapons, which are banned under international law, said commission member Carla Del Ponte.

"Our investigators have been in neighboring countries interviewing victims, doctors and field hospitals and, according to their report of last week which I have seen, there are strong, concrete suspicions but not yet incontrovertible proof of the use of sarin gas, from the way the victims were treated," Del Ponte said in an interview with Swiss-Italian television.

Why the Small Amounts of Sarin Cited by Washington, Riyadh, and Tel Aviv are a Set Up 

The small amounts of sarin gas reportedly used would defy any tactical or strategic sense had they been deployed by the Syrian government to tip the balance in the destructive 2-year conflict. According to the US military's own assessments of chemical weapon use during the 1980's Iran-Iraq War, only under ideal conditions and with massive amounts of chemical agents can tactical and strategic outcomes be achieved - and that conventional weapons were still, by far, superior to chemical weapons of any kind.

Unprovoked Attack on Syria: US-backed Israel Commits Egregious International Crime

The US feigns disassociation with Hitlerian act of Israeli aggression - as was planned since 2007.

Image: The West has carefully cultivated Israel into "regional bully." Immune from international condemnation, it is now being used to commit egregious war crimes against neighboring Syria, in hopes of provoking a retaliation and giving the US and its regional axis the justification it has long sought to militarily intervene.

....

May 5, 2013 (LD) - Unprovoked, Israel has attacked Syria numerous times over the past 2 days, including attacks on the Syrian capital of Damascus, in what appears to be a series of intentional provocations designed to drag the region into a wider conflict its US sponsors can then enter militarily. Neither attacked directly by Syria, nor able to cite credible evidence in regards to perceived threats Israel claims to be reacting to, the assault on Syria represents a Chapter VII breach of the United Nations Charter.

What's more, is that while the US feigns disassociation with Israel's breach of international peace, after jointly fueling a genocidal sectarian conflict within Syria's borders for the past two years, it is documented fact that the US and Saudi Arabia planned to use Israel to conduct military attacks against Iran and Syria, they themselves could not justify politically, legally, or strategically.

What is now hoped is that Syria and Iran retaliate militarily, allowing the "other shoe to drop," and for the US, UK, France, and their regional axis to directly intervene in Syria, and with any luck, Iran.

Israeli Airstrikes Signal Western Desperation in Syria

Alleged airstrikes hope to expand conflict, undermine Syrian advances, & provoke Syria and Iran to give US justification for military intervention. 

May 4, 2013 (LD) - Once again, Israel is "leaking" information about alleged airstrikes it claims it has conducted against Syria along the Lebanese-Syrian border. According to CNN's "Sources: U.S. believes Israel has conducted an airstrike into Syria," it was stated that:

The United States believes Israel has conducted an airstrike into Syria, two U.S. officials tell CNN.

And: 

The Israelis have long said they would strike at any targets that prove to be the transfer of any kinds of weapons to Hezbollah or other terrorist groups, as well as at any effort to smuggle Syrian weapons into Lebanon that could threaten Israel.

This was the same flimsy pretext used in another alleged Israeli attack on Syrian territory earlier this year.

In reality, the "other terrorists groups" Israel claims to worry about, are indeed funded and directed by the US, Israel, and Saudi Arabia as part of a long-standing, documented conspiracy to overthrow the nations of Iran and Syria.

Israeli Attack: Desperate Bid to Save Failed Syrian Campaign

January 31, 2013 (LD) - Israel has conducted airstrikes in Syria based on "suspicions" of chemical weapon transfers, in a flagrant violation of the UN Charter, international law, and in direct violation of Syria's sovereignty. The Guardian in its report titled, "Israel carries out air strike on Syria," claims:

"Israeli warplanes have attacked a target close to the Syrian-Lebanese border following several days of heightened warnings from government officials over Syria's stockpiles of weapons."

It also stated:

"Israel has publicly warned that it would take military action to prevent the Syrian regime's chemical weapons falling into the hands of Hezbollah in Lebanon or "global jihadists" fighting inside Syria. Israeli military intelligence is said to be monitoring the area round the clock via satellite for possible convoys carrying weapons."

In reality, these "global jihaidists" are in fact armed and funded by the US, Saudi Arabia, and Israel since at least as early as 2007. They are also in fact the direct beneficiaries of Israel's recent aggression. The Israeli "suspicions" of "weapon transfers" of course, remain unconfirmed, because the purpose of the attack was not to prevent the transfer of "chemical weapons" to Hezbollah in Lebanon, but to provoke a wider conflict aimed not at Israel's defense, but at salvaging the West's floundering proxy terrorist forces inside Syria attempting to subvert and overthrow the Syrian nation.

The silence from the United Nations is deafening. While Turkey openly harbors foreign terrorists, arming and funding them with Western, Saudi, and Qatari cash as they conduct raids on neighboring Syria, any Syrian attack on Turkish territory would immediately result in the United Nations mobilizing. Conversely, Turkey is allowed, for years, to conduct air strikes and even partial ground invasions of neighboring Iraq to attack Kurdish groups accused of undermining Turkish security. It is clear the same double standard has long applied to Israel.

As Israel-Gaza Charade Concludes, West Pivots Back to Syria

As predicted, Israel accepts humiliating ceasefire to bolster partners in Syrian subversion - Egypt, Turkey, & Qatar. 

November 22, 2012 (LD) - Reuters reported in their article, "Jubilant Palestinians mob Gaza streets," regarding the ceasefire agreement "brokered" by Egypt that, "the agreement calls on Hamas and Israel to cease all forms of military activity, including Israel's targeted killings of militants, and for an easing of the Israeli-Egyptian blockade of Gaza."

The article featured a photograph of cheering Palestinians in Gaza waving the Egyptian flag, reflecting both the true purpose and success of the Israeli-Gaza charade. Qatar Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani's conveniently-timed visit to Gaza just days before hostilities erupted was designed to give the despotic Persian Gulf monarchy a boost in both legitimacy and credibility after the conclusion of this staged spectacle - as was highly publicized rhetoric made by Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan against Israel.

Egypt, Qatar, and Turkey, all in fact partners with Israel and its Western sponsors in the subversion and overthrow of Syria, now have a renewed popular mandate across the Arab World, as a direct result of Israel's premeditated, predictable failure in Gaza.

Already, Western pundits and policy makers are gloating over one additional result of the ceasefire, one already being spun into a narrative regarding the "new Middle East." The Brookings Institution's Doha Center director, Salman Shaikh, boasted in Tweets that the ceasefire deal handed in particular, Egypt, Turkey, and Qatar credit for both the support of Gaza and the cessation of hostilities. He would state specifically:

"IF truce holds and Gaza is opened up, Hamas would have ended Israel's 5-year effort to isolate it in Gaza. Result of Egypt,Qatar,Turkey efforts. Regional spoilers will strike soon or they will be on the defensive."  

West Savages Gaza - Slowly Burns Syria

Gaza destruction is one of many in an array of desperate measures to inject legitimacy into anti-Syria-Iran campaign ahead of final push.

November 20, 2012 (LD) - Even as nations like Turkey, Qatar, and Egypt protest the Western-backed and facilitated destruction of Gaza by Israel, they, along with these very Western nations they protest, including Israel, continue coordinating efforts with each other to topple and destroy Syria.

Weapons and aid that many Arabs would like to see sent to defend Gaza, are instead in the hands of terrorists killing fellow Arabs across the Levant in the pursuit of long-ago articulated US-Israeli-Saudi plans to reshape the Middle East for their collective hegemonic ambitions.

Israeli Attack on Gaza - A Feast for those Starving of Legitimacy

In fact, the Israeli attack on Gaza - an otherwise fruitless adventure assured to end in either an embarrassing early ceasefire for Israel, or another 2006 Lebanon-style strategic defeat - is designed to give Turkey, Qatar, Egypt, and others across the region currently working with the US, UK, EU, and Israel to destroy Syria, a renewed sense of legitimacy in the eyes of the Muslim World.

Not only are Muslim nations that are in league with the West benefiting from this "legitimacy windfall," so are international institutions like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. The reputations of both have suffered for consistently backing and defending terrorists operating inside Syria as the general public increasingly becomes aware of the atrocities they are committing and their true, sectarian motivations. The nebulous Anonymous group, which has also lent tremendous support for Western-backed terrorists operating in Syria, has also used the Israeli-Gaza conflict to continue casting doubt as to where their real loyalty lies. 

Manipulative Roll-Out for US-Created "Opposition Council" 

Netanyahu Leading Israel to Avoidable, but Obvious Defeat

Why is the Israeli government purposefully falling on its sword? 
 
November 19, 2012 (LD) - Israel exists in a perpetual "besieged" mentality. The Israeli people have been conditioned to view themselves as an island amidst a violent sea. However, the constant belligerent posture of their government in fact drives the winds that churn that sea, and as the face of modern warfare shifts, and the more they use their armor and air power against their perceived enemies, the higher the waves become.

Video: Dr. Webster Tarpley explains the reckless untenable nature of Israel's current foreign policy, and the need for an immediate ceasefire to be reached - both for the sake of preserving innocent life in Palestine, and for the very survival and stability of Israel. 

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Historian and geopolitical expert Dr. Webster Tarpley noted in a recent PressTV interview that the paradigm has shifted in terms of modern warfare, and that tactics involving armor and air superiority cannot guarantee Israel its defense any longer. Operations such as the abortive invasion of southern Lebanon in 2006, the brutal but ultimately unsuccessful "Operation Cast Lead" in late 2008-early 2009, and now this most recent conflict in Gaza, show that while Israel still possesses an immense capacity to inflict suffering and death in a tactical dimension, it has become all but impotent at achieving any meaningful strategic objectives.

Analysis: Gaza & the Politics of ‘Greater Israel’

IDF announcement designed to provoke.

November 17, 2012 (Nile Bowie) - The Israeli bombardment of Gaza being perpetuated under ‘Operation Pillar of Defense’ comes at an interesting time. Under the leadership of Benjamin Netanyahu and Ehud Barak, the expansion of illegal Jewish settlements into Palestinian lands has increased at unprecedented rates. Netanyahu’s administration has approved the construction of 850 settler homes in the occupied West Bank in June 2012, even after the Israeli parliament rejected a bill to retroactively legalize some of the existing homes in the area. [2] The number of Jewish settlers in the West Bank has almost doubled in the past 12 years, with more than 350,000 residing illegally under international law. [3] While Israel’s Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman asserts Tel Aviv’s unwillingness to permit Palestinians any right to return to their lands, emphasizing, “not even one refugee,” apartheid enforced on ethnic and religious lines has become a ratified part of Israeli government policy. [4] Far-right political discourse that was once considered extremism is now the status quo in Israel. 

Israel vs Hamas: Deadly Theater

The West created and runs Israel, Hamas, the "Free Syrian Army," and the Muslim Brotherhood - when the public needs to be manipulated, a deadly ballet ensues. 

November 16, 2012 (LD) - The Western allied, funded, armed, and directed sectarian extremist organizations, namely Al Qaeda, the Muslim Brotherhood, and their subsidiaries of Hamas and the so-called "Free Syrian Army," were created and to this day are backed specifically to counter real opposition to Western designs of hegemony across the Muslim World.

The West has also created and continues to perpetuate Israel as it exists in its current state, a purposefully provocative militant nation that serves as a beachhead for Western objectives throughout the region, as well as a perpetual impetus for filling the ranks of extremist groups who are then turned loose against the West's enemies.

While Israel conducts combat operations against Hamas in Gaza, they are supporting their affiliates in Syria just across the border upon the Golan Heights, and across greater Syria in coordination with the US, France, England, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar. 

While US representatives frequently meet in Doha, Qatar to support and continue propping up the political front serving as cover for Western, Saudi, and Qatari backed terrorists in Syria, Qatar's unelected leader-for-life, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, has slinked in and out of Gaza to pour 250 million dollars into Hamas just before the latest Israeli-Hamas violence broke out.

It is documented that since 2007 the US, Israel, and Saudi Arabia have been colluding to arm and unleash sectarian extremists, both Al Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood, against their collective enemies across the region. With the West using Qatar as a base of operations, not only to continuously prop up the so-called "Syrian National Council," but to base the corporate-funded Brookings Institution think-tank's Doha Center, are we to believe that Qatar is not-so-secretly trying to destroy Israel right under America's nose? Without condemnation or protest from the US or any of its co-conspirators?