Military Strike Spoils Plans for Attack on Israel

 

Hezballah has reported that a helicopter strike in southwestern Syria has killed Jihad Mughniyeh, the son of Imad Mughniyeh, along with four Iranians amongst others while they were setting explosives along the Syrian border with Israel, breaking terms of the armistice, and preparing rockets for strike to be launched against Israel. No nation has claimed credit for these strikes but I would like to issue an open ended thanks to whoever it may have been. There were reports that shortly before the strike there were drones orbiting over the site though it has not been reported where the drones went. It has also not been explained what a top Hezballah was doing with four Iranians in southwestern Syria setting explosives along the Israeli border or why rocket launchers were being set up and armed with rockets set in a direction which would have resulted in their launching into Israel. As Israel has refused to comment and there has also been no commentary from the United States, let me first thank President Obama and the folks at the Pentagon just in case the United States decided to strike these dangerous and potentially problematic actions along the Israeli border and if it was Israel then well played, well played.

 

Whatever were the particulars on who performed this strike, what was surprising is this is the first actual report of preparations for a strike on Israel from within Syrian territory. There have been numerous people crossing from Syria into Israel seeking medical aid and each has been treated and returned to Syria upon their complete recovery. There have been no question as to which side they may be aligned with or even whether or not they are civilians, Syrian military or from amongst the myriad of terrorist groups including al-Qaeda, al-Nusra, ISIS, or even Hezballah; they are simply treated and returned across the border. Perhaps this explains some of the reasons for healthcare costs along with the Palestinians from Judea, Samaria and even Gaza which receive treatment in Israel even including the granddaughter and wife of leading Hamas officers. Had these rockets been launched into Israel it would not have made any difference where or what they had struck or what response they might have intended, be that being able to internationalize the conflict or to have drawn Israel into the war in order to gain sympathy and involvement of other Middle Eastern governments into the war, the sole response they would have drawn would have been an Israeli strike against whatever forces within Syria which were determined to have been responsible. This brings us to emphasizing something which needs to be stressed and made known before it ever becomes an incitement in the form of an attack on Israeli cities, towns, farms or other targets within Israel as evidence has been gathered where such strikes have been proposed as a way of internationalizing the Syrian war and being able to make a general call to arms in support of Assad claiming that Syrian forces have come under attack by the Israelis. Assad realized that Syria is lost and is fighting now for the survival of the only thing he really cares about, his survival and to remain the Iranian base of supply for Hezballah and the Iranian harbor for any operations they may plan for the Mediterranean Sea. Assad realized his strategic importance as Iran’s western Mediterranean base and also as an Iranian staging area bordering Israel which offers far greater strategic depth than does Lebanon. Iran has also proven their belief in the importance of their Syrian base of operations through their providing provisions for Syrian and Hezballah fighters and their ordering Nasrallah to commit Hezballah forces to assist Assad for without the Hezballah forces it is very likely that Syria may have already fallen before the combined forces made up by al-Qaeda allied terror groups such as al-Nusra plus the forces of the now infamous ISIS terrorists, though they prefer to simply be called IS (pronounced iz) rather than ISIS (pronounced iz-iz).

 

This now primordial struggle between historic forces of enmity, Sunnis and Shiites, has ravaged Syria beyond imagination of anyone who has not resided or been stationed in a nation embroiled in a war where the complete eradication and destruction of the enemy was the stated aim of both sides fighting within the national borders. Many cities in World War II faced such destruction; Stalingrad and Dresden come to mind. That is the real horror of the war in Syria, the complete and utter destruction of a nation to the point that it no longer retains the infrastructure necessary to support the nation’s population and the neighboring nations where most of the population has fled are not prepared or capable of absorbing these refugees who no longer have homes, jobs, places to shop, food stores, farms or much else to facilitate their returning to their former neighborhoods. The horrific destruction has been one of the resulting dilemmas for which nobody has given much concern. Perhaps this might be something which the United Nations might put some of their brainiacs on seeking answers to instead of rushing to investigate Israel at the behest of a collection of terrorist entities pretending to be a nation. Solving the dilemma which is Syria would also assist in finding a solution for a fair number of so-called refugee Arabs who had been held in camps in Syria before Assad had his military target those very same camps just in case they might join the forces marshalled against him. Those refugees are now double refugees which are currently under the auspices of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and potentially might return to being under United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) should they ever be returned and their camp rebuilt in Syria. All of this is pure conjecture about a future which is so far out of sight that perhaps any solutions for what to do after the Syrian struggle reaches an end point should be planned for some time in the next century.

 

Hezballah has responded to the strike saying that the death Jihad Mughniyeh, the son of Imad Mughniyeh, along with four Iranians was “a hard blow to take.” Further it has been reported by Turkish media that Hezballah has elevated the readiness of its forces stationed along the southern border areas of Lebanon with Israel. These forces are stations south of the Litani River which has brought a number of Israeli complaints as such placement of Hezballah terrorists south of the Litani River breaks the agreement which ended the second Lebanon war armistice. But never mind such a brazen breach of a treaty presumably enforced by the United Nations, United States and the European Union with European and other United Nations troops were supposed to enforce along with forces from the Lebanese Army. The United Nations Interim Force In Lebanon (UNIFIL) were reinforced almost doubling their size with the explicit orders and mission statement was to prevent any rebuilding of the infrastructure of command bunkers, concealed rocket launching emplacements, ammunitions depots which are often placed within people’s homes, interconnecting tunnels and tank traps amongst other military support emplacements as well as preventing Hezballah terrorists to take up position south of the Litani River but they found an endless number of reasons why they failed every stipulation of their mission statement. About the only unanswered question is whether or not Hezballah and the UNIFIL forces are sharing buildings again where they both have their flags raised overhead on the same flagpole. Whatever the case with UNIFIL and their questionable ability to restrict Hezballah from reestablishing their fortresses rocket launching platforms, armament depots and other installations, with Hezballah blaming Israel for the loss of their command level personage, Jihad Mughniyeh, four Iranian fighters and other personnel and placing their terrorist forces on heightened military preparedness level and announcing their holding Israel responsible for the attack on their personnel, Israel has also placed personnel in the north along the Lebanese border on a heightened awareness and hopefully doubling the numbers of patrols and soldiers contained in each patrol making all the needed preparations to repel any Hezballah incursions across the border. Hopefully neither side will provoke any further actions escalating the confrontation further nor requiring an Israeli response as such will not be anything like the second Lebanon war, the IDF has provided all infantry units’ additional training to better prepare her troops for any situation. As of the time of this report there has been no infiltration by Hezballah terrorists and with any luck the fates will allow for both sides to relax their heightened levels of alert ending this escalation without any further altercations. The Hezballah reactions and statements begs a basic question namely; what were Jihad Mughniyeh, four Iranian agents and a platoon or so of Hezballah terror fighters doing in Syria and what was their intentions as they were caught laying explosives charges along the Syrian-Israel border and setting up rocket launchers such that any rocket fired from them would necessarily strike within the borders of Israel and not be launched into Syria at their opponents.

 

Beyond the Cusp