Israeli Airstrikes on Syria 3 May 2013 - WW III Begins?

[thorfourwinds]

Report: Israeli Airstrikes on Syria

"Two U.S. officials are telling CNN that the U.S. believes Israel has conducted an airstrike into Syria," CNN reports.

"Western intelligence agencies are reviewing classified data and they say they believe Israel conducted the strike today or late yesterday."

CNN's Barbara Starr adds,

"Two U.S. officials confirming to me that U.S. and Western intelligence agencies are tonight reviewing classified data showing indications that they believe Israel did conduct an airstrike into Syria."

The other data point that they are looking at is the Lebanese are reporting in the last 24 hours 16 Israeli war plane flights over Lebanese airspace coming into Lebanon violating the air space going towards that Syrian border.

So clearly something has happened here. U.S. officials say they need to get more information about all this. They are not confirming it publicly.

As for the Israelis, they are not confirming it either.

But they issued a statement saying, quote,

"We will do whatever is necessary to stop the transfer of weapons from Syria to terrorist organizations. We have done it in the past and will do it if necessary in future."

We know that the israeli position is they will strike at Syria if they see weapons being transferred from syria to hezbollah forces in lebanon."

According to CNN, these strikes appear not to have been targeted at chemical weapons.

And, importantly, Israeli planes, according to Syria, do not appear to have entered Syrian airspace.

[robomont]

let israel prop up the united states  with arms purchases.
to kill their cousins no less.
sounds like a twofer.i say how many bombs do they need.
maybe pwm can sell them some drones.

[petrus4]

I begin to suspect that in reality, there is only a single genuine terrorist organisation in existence on this planet; and Benjamin Netanyahu could be called the current leader of it.

[thorfourwinds]

Israeli launch airstrikes into Syria, possibly targeting delivery systems for chemical weapons, US officials say

Israeli warplanes launched airstrikes against targets inside Syria on Friday, U.S. officials told NBC News.

It's believed the primary target was a shipment of weapons headed for Hezbollah in Lebanon, they said.

A senior U.S. official said the airstrikes were believed to be related to delivery systems for chemical weapons.

An Israeli spokesman in Washington said that Israel would not comment specifically on the reports but said that "Israel is determined to prevent the transfer of chemical weapons or other game-changing weaponry by the Syrian regime to terrorists, especially to Hezbollah in Lebanon."

White House officials referred all questions to the Israelis.

[rdunk]

I begin to suspect that in reality, there is only a single genuine terrorist organisation in existence on this planet; and Benjamin Netanyahu could be called the current leader of it.

I suppose that you then believe that Israel is responsible for the terrorist bombings in Boston? I suspect that you don't have a "real clue" about Israel at all, and may just be a "simple anti-Semitic"??

Have you ever actually spent any time at all in Israel, and gotten to know those people, that you come down so hard on?? Or, do you just believe all of the negative stuff comes out from their anti-Israel neighbors, who religiously all hate their guts??

I have spent a little time over there, during some of their "problem times", and I saw nothing of anything like what you proffer.

No, I am not running up "the smiley flag" this time, but I do believe you are more than a little bit off base with these comments!

[robomont]

just like we have a problem with our christian nutjobs.they have a jewish version.the jews are money whores and eventuall we will all answer to them.
look at what newyork has been through since 1999.where is the largest concentration of jews in america.
wherever jews show up .trouble follows.they own the media and thats the biggest traitor in america after obama.
just spend some time digging into their real past.not their made up past.
im not religious and use to not be bias but over the years ive read and seen too much to ever trust that population in general.
but i dont trust most people anyway.

[thorfourwinds]

FOR THE RECORD






5-5-2013 - YouTube



That awkward moment when ...
Israel launches airstrikes in Syria

4 May 2013

Syrian Facebook pages are reporting a series of massive explosions in Damascus, as are the Syrian regime's media outlets.

Given the size of the blasts, and the news that Israeli jets earlier this week struck a shipment of Iranian missles thought to be headed for Hezbollah, everyone is assuming that Israel is behind these strikes as well.

Syrian state TV is claiming that Israel hit a "research center," while opposition Facebook pages are saying that several elite units on Mt. Qassioun, overlooking Damascus, were the targets. (Hezbollah's al-Manar TV station is claiming an Israeli jet was shot down, but that seems unlikely.)

Israeli officials are keeping characteristically mum, but it seems plausible that they would have followed up their previous, successful strike with another one aimed at further degrading the Syrian regime's capabilities.

Because it's so difficult, not to mention risky, to destroy chemical-weapons stocks from the air, the next-best thing is to take out Assad's means of delivering them. And Mt. Qassioun is reportedly where many of the Syrian regime's best missiles are kept.

(Courtesy: foreignpolicy.com)

Would the U.S. still arm a Syrian opposition that used chemical weapons?

5 May 2013

After a concerted effort to walk back -- or at least soften -- its "red line" on the use of chemical weapons by the Syrian regime, it looks as if the Obama administration may have just gotten off the hook.

According to Reuters, U.N. human rights investigators now have evidence that rebel forces used sarin gas -- a revelation that, if confirmed, would vindicate the president's studied approach to the Syrian conflict and reduce the political pressure on him to act immediately.

In an interview Sunday with a Swiss-Italian television station, Carla Del Ponte, a former prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and a current member of the U.N. Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Syria, said that testimony gathered by U.N. human rights researchers reveals "strong, concrete suspicions but not yet incontrovertible proof of the use of sarin gas."

She added: "This was use on the part of the opposition, the rebels, not by the government authorities."
After the Obama administration reluctantly acknowledged on April 25 that the Syrian regime had most likely used chemical weapons, it looked as if the president had backed himself into a corner.

In August 2012, Obama declared the use of chemical agents a "red line" for U.S. involvement in the conflict, later reiterating that it would be a "game changer."

(Courtesy: www.dailystar.com.lb)

Syria accuses Israel of declaring war after further air strikes

5 May 2013

The Syrian government said that Israeli air strikes against military targets around Damascus amounted to a "declaration of war" and threatened retaliation, in the latest sign that the fighting is spilling across the Syrian border and risks sparking a wider regional conflict.

Israel made no official comment on the strikes early on Sunday, which were the second in two days and the third and heaviest this year. Security sources said they were aimed at preventing the transfer of advanced Iranian-made missiles to Hezbollah in Lebanon for possible use against Israel.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu removes his glasses during a Likud party
meeting at the Knesset (Israel's parliament) in Jerusalem on March 12, 2012.
Israeli warplanes pounded the Gaza Strip for a fourth day, killing four more Palestinians,
as a teenager died in a mystery blast, raising the death toll so far to 23. (Credit: AFP/Getty Images)

After the attack, Israel deployed two batteries of Iron Dome anti-ballistic missiles, designed to intercept incoming enemy missiles, to the north of the country, and the prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, delayed a trip to China to chair a meeting of his security cabinet.
...

The Damascus regime's deputy foreign minister, Faisal al-Miqdad, told CNN the Israeli air strikes at the weekend represented "a declaration of war" and betokened an alliance between Islamist terrorists and Israel. He said Syria would retaliate in its own time and in its own way.

Omran Zoabi, the information minister, said: "Syria is a country that does not accept insults and it doesn't accept humiliation."

Israeli military analysts said the missiles had been fired from outside Syrian airspace to avoid engaging Syria's reportedly formidable air defences. The Lebanese army said that Israeli planes had flown above Lebanon, an act that drew condemnation from the country's president, Michel Suleiman.

...

A senior Israeli official was quoted by AP as saying the air strikes were aimed at destroying Fateh-110 missiles, a solid-fuelled Iranian weapon with a 200 mile range and precision guidance systems, far more effective than anything in Hezbollah's existing arsenal. Its Farsi name means "conqueror".

...
The air strikes were also a signal to Iran, Yadlin said, making it clear to Tehran that "when at least some of the players define red lines, and they are crossed, they take it seriously".

(Courtesy: english.alarabiya.net)

Israel strikes Syria again

By ASSOCIATED PRESS | 5/5/13 7:19 AM EDT

Israeli warplanes struck areas in and around the Syrian capital Sunday, setting off a series of explosions as they targeted a shipment of highly accurate, Iranian-made guided missiles believed to be on their way to Lebanon's Hezbollah militant group, officials and activists said.

The attack, the second in three days, signaled a sharp escalation of Israel's involvement in Syria's bloody civil war. Syria's state media reported that Israeli missiles struck a military and scientific research center near the Syrian capital and caused casualties. more