We're watching this in real time. We know the battles that will come according to biblical prophecy and every day we see the precise alignment of various nations closing in around Israel. Literally everything we see happening in the epicenter lines up exactly as we would expect. Today's news is simply a continuation of that fact:
The countdown to U.S. intervention in the mess in Damascus appears to be nearing the zero hour.
The Obama administration is actively considering using military force to bring down the Assad regime in Syria. Specifically, the White House and Pentagon are analyzing the idea of running a 24/7 “no-fly zone” over Syria, as well as training and arming rebel forces to defeat the Assad forces. But the costs would be high — upwards of $1 billion a month — and might not even be successful.
In my view, active U.S. military involvement in Syria would be a catastrophic mistake. I feel terrible for the bloodshed and carnage going on inside Syria. But tragically I see very little that the West can do to actually make the situation better.
Who exactly would we arm and assist? We’re talking about a civil war that is pitting Shia radicals (Assad’s regime, Iran and Hezbollah) against ”the rebels,” most of whom are Sunni radicals (including al Qaeda and Muslim Brotherhood forces). I don’t want any of them to win. Are there small numbers of rebels who might be better if they could really come to power? Perhaps. But the fact is they have very limited chances of getting to the top of the greasy pole. Indeed, if the wrong people seize control of Syria, the situation for the Israel, Jordan, Lebanon and the West could actually become much worse.
Our highest priority should be stopping Iran from building nuclear weapons. Period.
Still, the White House appears to be readying the military for U.S. intervention, and some Republicans in Congress are encouraging them along these lines.
“The Pentagon has provided Congress with its first detailed list of military options to stem the bloody civil war in Syria, suggesting that a campaign to tilt the balance from President Bashar al-Assad to the opposition would be a vast undertaking, costing billions of dollars, and could backfire on the United States,” reports the New York Times.
However, the Muslim Brotherhood is not stopping at demonstrations, threats or random street violence in Cairo and other Egyptian cities to get its way. It appears to be organizing a major counter-attack to bring about its restoration to power, using the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip as its command center and the Sinai Peninsula as its launching pad to force itself back into power through terrorism.
Headed by Mahmud Izzat Ibrahim, a senior deputy of the Supreme Guide, the group has established a command post at the Gaza Beach Hotel, to organize operations against Egyptian military and security targets, in conjunction with Hamas and armed Al Qaeda-linked Salafist Bedouin in Sinai. The ousted Islamist leaders hope their revolt will quickly spread out from Sinai to Egypt proper and topple the provisional rulers in Cairo… Our sources reveal that the group escaped from Egypt using the Hamas networks which operated underground in Egypt during the Mubarak presidency.
Meanwhile, jihadists and criminal elements are already causing havoc in the Sinai Peninsula, turning it into a lawless area where Egyptian police and army personnel have been targeted for assassination. Hamas is said to be helping their jihadist brethren that have set up operations in Sinai, which is not surprising considering that Hamas is an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood.
Needless to say, more overt Hamas military activities in Sinai, from which the Islamist terrorist organization already smuggles weapons and materials through tunnels into Gaza, is particularly worrisome to Israel. As a result, Israel is reportedly giving tacit support to plans by the Egyptian army for a large-scale deployment of troops in Sinai. An unnamed Israeli army source told the Times of London: “We consider securing Sinai a top priority and have no wish to tie the hands of the Egyptian army against clearing the area of dangerous terrorists.”
In short, the Muslim Brotherhood is not going away anytime soon. To the contrary, it is dropping its pretense of “moderation” and evidently organizing a counter-attack with the help of Hamas, al Qaeda and other jihadist groups bent on using terror to re-instate an Islamic state in Egypt.
Short-term risks to Israel are on the rise, and the seeds for new threats are being planted in some arenas, OC Military Intelligence Maj.-Gen. Aviv Kochavi warned on Tuesday.
He spoke during a ceremony marking the completion of an intelligence course for officers.
It is attracting “thousands of radical jihadi activists from the area and the world, who are basing themselves in the country, not only to topple Assad, but also to promote the vision of an Islamic religious state,” he said.
“Before our eyes, a global jihadi center is developing on our doorstep, on a large scale, which might influence not only Syria, and not only the State of Israel, but also Lebanon, Jordan and the Sinai Peninsula, and could impact the whole region,” Kochavi said.
That the Netanyahu government took a wrong turn in its policy of non-intervention in the Syrian conflict was manifested by the warning coming from the IDF’s military intelligence (AMAN) chief Maj. Gen. Aviv Kochavi Tuesday night, July 23, when he said that Syria had become a global battleground for al Qaeda.
Addressing a passing-out ceremony at the IDF’s Officers’ School, Kochavi warned that the thousands of al Qaeda pouring into Syria from around the world are fighting to create an Islamic state there, just as they are in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Yemen. This peril, he said, is closing in on Israel, Lebanon, Jordan and Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula.
Addressing a passing-out ceremony at the IDF’s Officers’ School, Kochavi warned that the thousands of al Qaeda pouring into Syria from around the world are fighting to create an Islamic state there, just as they are in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Yemen. This peril, he said, is closing in on Israel, Lebanon, Jordan and Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula.
At the UN Security Council in New York, his words were echoed by Robert Serry, UN Coordinator of the Middle East peace process, who said Syria “is increasingly turning into a big global battleground.”
It is important to note that Gen. Kochavi issued his warning shortly after returning home from meetings in
Washington with senior US military and intelligence officers. He flew to the US on July 17, on the day that hostilities flared between the Israeli and Syrian armies in the southern Golan on a scale which was never released to the public.
It is important to note that Gen. Kochavi issued his warning shortly after returning home from meetings in
Washington with senior US military and intelligence officers. He flew to the US on July 17, on the day that hostilities flared between the Israeli and Syrian armies in the southern Golan on a scale which was never released to the public.
That clash marked the bankruptcy of the government and army command’s efforts to stop the tide of violence from reaching Israel’s northern borders by means of a tactic of virtual non-involvement, aside from limited aid to certain Syrian rebel groups, medical care for some of their wounded and certain unreported small-scale operations.
Threats from five separate sources now threaten to swamp those efforts entirely. They are posed by the Syrian army; Hizballah; global jiahdists; armed Syrian rebel militias funded by Saudi Arabia; and Al Qaeda groups bolstered for the first time by the arrival in recent weeks Pakistani Taliban groups of fighters.
Islamist forces are thrusting forward strongly in eastern, northern and western Syria. They murder any non-Islamist rebel chiefs, especial Free Syrian Army commanders, standing in their way and are moving on towards Lebanon and Jordan as well.
Islamist forces are thrusting forward strongly in eastern, northern and western Syria. They murder any non-Islamist rebel chiefs, especial Free Syrian Army commanders, standing in their way and are moving on towards Lebanon and Jordan as well.
What strikes most concern in Jerusalem, are the first signs of a tie-in between al Qaeda in Syria and al Qaeda in Sinai. The intelligence chief’ went to Washington with a report that coordinated terrorist operations against Israel were shaping up for the first time from Syria, Sinai and possibly Lebanon too.
An extensive global jihad center is developing right on Israel’s doorstep, the IDF’s head of military research Aviv Kochavi said Tuesday evening, warning about throngs of Islamist fighters streaming into Syria.
“In front of our eyes, right in our backyard, a global center for jihad is developing, which can affect not only Syria and Israel but also Lebanon, Jordan, and the Sinai Peninsula, and can radiate to the entire region,” the major general said at a graduation ceremony for intelligence officers.
Two mortar shells were fired toward Israeli territory from Gaza on Wednesday morning. The shells, originally reported to have landed in open areas in the Eshkol region, were later determined to have impacted inside the Gaza Strip itself.
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar