| FrontPageMag.com | Articles By Robert Spencer | Articles By Hugh Fitzgerald | Books | Islam 101 | Qur'an Blog | Robert Spencer Bio |  |
|
|
|||||||||
|
|
Russia factors heavily in this situation, reportedly extending weapons discounts and other benefits to Syria. A rather myopic move by a country that is battling its own jihadist insurgency.
"Syria 'intensely' arming itself," by Aaron Klein for World Net Daily:
JERUSALEM – Syria is in the midst of "intensely" arming itself, placing into position rockets and missiles capable of striking the entire Jewish state, according to an assessment presented to the Knesset today by multiple Israeli security agencies.
The announcement follows a WND exclusive report last month quoting security officials stating Syria, aided by Russia and Iran, has been furiously acquiring rockets and missiles, including projectiles capable of hitting any point in Israel. The officials listed anti-tank, anti-aircraft and ballistic missiles as some of the arms procured by Syria.
Yesterday, Israel's Mossad and Israel Defense Forces Military Intelligence chiefs presented an annual security report to the Knesset warning of Syria's armament program.
The chiefs also warned of a possible flare-up at Israel's northern border with the Hezbollah terror group and said in their assessment Iran could cross the technological threshold enabling it to assemble a nuclear bomb by the end of next year.
The assessment came after Prime Minister Ehud Olmert announced last week negotiations between the Jewish state and Syria should be seriously considered it if would bring an end to Syrian-sponsored terrorism and Damascus' "involvement in the axis of evil."
The negotiations would aim for some sort of Israeli evacuation from the Golan Heights strategic, mountainous territory looking down on Israeli and Syrian population centers twice used by Damascus to launch ground invasions into the Jewish state.
Syria openly provides refuge to Palestinian terror leaders, including the chiefs of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, and has been accused of shipping weapons to Hezbollah. Damascus is also accused of supporting the insurgency against U.S. troops in Iraq.
'Furious frenzy' to get Russian missiles
Olmert's announcement of Israel's willingness to negotiate followed a WND report in which Israeli and Jordanian security officials outlined Syria's recent armament.
A Jordanian security official said one of the main reasons Damascus did not retaliate after Israel carried out its Sept. 6 air strike inside Syria – which allegedly targeted a nascent nuclear facility – was because Syria's rocket infrastructure was not yet complete.
The official said that after the Israeli air strike, Syria picked up the pace of acquiring rockets and missiles, largely from Russia with Iranian backing, with the goal of completing its missile and rocket arsenal by the end of the year. The Jordanian official said Syria is aiming to possess the capacity to fire more than 100 rockets into Israel per hour for a sustained period of time.
"The Syrians have three main goals: to maximize their anti-tank, anti-aircraft and ballistic missile and rocket capabilities," explained the Jordanian official.
According to Israeli and Jordanian officials, Syria recently quietly struck a deal with Russia that allows Moscow to station submarines and war boats off Syrian ports. In exchange, Russia is supplying Syria with weaponry at lower costs, with some of the missiles and rockets being financed by Iran.
Posted by Marisol at March 10, 2008 12:27 AM
Print this entry
| Email this entry
| Digg this
| del.icio.us
|
I actually don't think "Russia" is so myopic. Who, precisely, do you think "Russia" is, anymore?
Those selling weapons are a tiny conglomerate of ultra-rich who are looting the country of any and all resources. They won't be there when the jihadist insurgency comes; they'll be long gone. They couldn't care less about their own people.
Their goal is to create more and more strife in the world, driving up oil prices so they can loot even more. If Moscow is nuked, they'll be sitting off the coast of Capri.
Posted by: JWAnon![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.jihadwatch.org/nav-commenters.gif)
at March 10, 2008 12:48 AM
"According to Israeli and Jordanian officials, Syria recently quietly struck a deal with Russia that allows Moscow to station submarines and war boats off Syrian ports. In exchange, Russia is supplying Syria with weaponry at lower costs, with some of the missiles and rockets being financed by Iran."
-- from the article above
And what is the United States doing as all of this is happening? It's spending hundreds of billions a year trying to keep the Sunni Arabs and the Shi'a Arabs from being at each other's throats in Iraq. And it allows the government of Syria to pay off Iran, for so many things, but especially for giving the Alawites a Muslim cover (that fatwa an Iranian cleric issued a few years ago, declaring the Alawites to be full-fledged Muslims, and not the non-Muslim syncretists that the Sunnis in Syria take them to be).
Russia -- a re-sovietized Russia -- is back, while America remains bogged down, perplexed, and yet not quite perplexed enough to begin to understand the full folly of the Iraq venture, and the magnitude of the squandering of men, money, materiel, morale.
Possibly this kind of story will wake up those policy-makers from their deep dream of peace. Or possibly, it won't.
Posted by: Hugh at March 10, 2008 12:56 AM
Re-sovietized? Sounds to me more like a Tsarist Russia, with their rich anti-Semitic heritage, is back.
Short sighted? No, Russia knows that the support for the Chechen and Kosovo movements is backed by the Sunni/Wahabis and al Qaeda, while they are busy backing Shia/Alawite regimes in Iran and Syria. Only thing they need to do is to direct them to battle Sunni forces in the region, like the Ikhwan and al Qaeda.
Posted by: Infidel Pride at March 10, 2008 1:23 AM
Quite obviously, the Syrian's astutely learned the lessons of last year's Israel-Hezbollah war in Lebanon.
Posted by: Cornelius at March 10, 2008 3:42 AM
How well the Syrian anti-aircraft batteries will work in a coming war remains to be seen. Soviet-supplied anti-aircraft missiles wreaked havoc on the Israeli air-force over the Sinai in '73. Nine years later, the same weapons were useless over the skies of Lebanon as Israeli jets honed in on the radar signals of the missile tracking systems and destroyed them in over-the-horizon air-to-ground missile attacks.
Meanwhile, the anti-tank missiles and particularly the ballistic missiles possessed by Hezbollah were used to devastating effect last summer. The destruction of portions of Haifa and other northern cities clearly indicates that the equation of warfare has changed in the region...and that Israel needs to up-date its military doctrine.
Iraq certainly proves that armored vehicles are increasingly vulnerable to armor-piercing IEDs and anti-tank weapons. Personally, I think tanks will be obsolete in a few years. A multi-million dollar state-of-the-art tank can now be disabled by a weapon costing a tiny fraction as much.
The main problem, as we saw last summer and we're seeing today in Gaza, is the threat posed by rockets and ballistic missiles. Missile defense technology is in its infancy...it is imperative that US and Israeli R&D must accelerate the learning curve, so that not only ICBMs and IRBMs are an easy kill, but much shorter-range missiles and rockets also.
The key is a laser-based system. Someday soon, we'll look back on the anti-missile missile as a quaint dinosaur.
Posted by: Cornelius at March 10, 2008 6:32 AM
Expect Syria to use those weapons as soon as they have enough of them. Just like they have every other time in the past.
Posted by: flowerknife_us at March 10, 2008 6:58 AM
Expect Syria to use those weapons as soon as they have enough of them. Just like they have every other time in the past.
Posted by: flowerknife_us at March 10, 2008 7:01 AM
"Expect Syria to use those weapons as soon as they have enough of them..." Posted by: flowerknife_us
Syria should be careful or Damascus might just become a 'ruinous heap' one night.
Posted by: Sounder at March 10, 2008 9:06 AM
"According to Israeli and Jordanian officials, Syria recently quietly struck a deal with Russia that allows Moscow to station submarines and war boats off Syrian ports. In exchange, Russia is supplying Syria with weaponry at lower costs, with some of the missiles and rockets being financed by Iran."
Why does Moscow want to station submarines and war boats off of Syrian ports in the first place? What is in their strategic interests to have warships there?
Those anti-tank missles did cause some problems and was probably the biggest contributer to the toll of IDF killed but again, those anti-tank missles were effective in large part because the IDF tank crews were given orders from Olmert to hold positions....don't move...in other words, sitting ducks.
Israel is being pinned down on all fronts, politically and physically. As Cornelius said, their wasn't much they could do regarding the missle blitz a couple years back. The R&D would be necessary, but I think the best defence is offense in this case, when no defense exists to nuclear weapons being detonated, hundreds of missles being fired and sustained over hours...especially precise missle attacks.
Israel needs to change it's military doctrine drastically. They're not being given any respect at all anymore. The blatent arming, threats and attacks by their enemies only shows this. They are viewing Israel as a country at it's weakest, which is motivating them to continue their seige, both politically and physically.
Israel needs to hold Damascus and Tehran responsible now, and shouldn't be hestitant in using their massive weaponry which they have for this very purpose. Survival.
Posted by: Sneakyzionistcrusader at March 10, 2008 9:25 AM
I think Russia has set up Iran, and Iran's client state Syria, as an armed proxy against the United States and Israel. Iran is arming furiously too, and is financially backing Damascus in the bargain. After all, how is a poor country like Syria to have the revenues to pay for all of this? They don't have the money. But Iran does still get money for its oil.
War is coming to Israel from multiple fronts. All the signs point to this. And the polity in Israel still seems oblivious to this. It's frustrating to view all of this from the perch of my distance here. I'm not Jewish, but am a Christian who cares about the survival of these people and their tiny state.
A few weeks ago, in Cleveland, OH, Barack Obama soothingly told a group of liberal, Democrat Jews that he supports Israel. Yet, buried in his speech was a very significant qualification to his pledge of support: it won't be there for a "Likud government." In other words, and Israel that will fight back is unacceptable to Obama and his advisers. An Israel that will refuse more useless give-backs and concessions is unacceptable to a President Obama and his advisers.
To Obama and his advisers, the only acceptable Jew is the victim Jew, the Jew who is endlessly killed and blasted by the pyrotechnics of jihad.
at March 10, 2008 9:54 AM
Sensible foreign policy for Israel. Syria's armed to the teeth with new rockets that can hit all of Israel. Give them Golan Heights to fire them from.
Posted by: poetcomic1 at March 10, 2008 10:09 AM
"Syria 'intensely' arming itself," by Aaron Klein for World Net Daily:
And this differs from their normal arming?
Posted by: tanstaafl at March 10, 2008 11:42 AM
Israel's only defense in the short-term is augmenting their submarine fleet. They recently placed an order with Germany for 2 more Dolphin-class submarines to complement the 3 Dolphin's that they already have. Israel expects delivery of these additional subs in 2010.
The Israeli's have probably figured out how to make the existing subs capable of firing nuclear Popeye Turbo cruise missiles. Like the US, Israel should move most of their nukes out-to-sea. (We did if for political and military reasons. The USSR wanted to but its fleet was land-locked half-the-year due to winter conditions.) In this way, Israel can launch a nuclear counter-strike after near total land-based devestation (the Samson option.) They can respond because they haven't lost their ability to counter-strike because their nuke's are spread out across the sea and can't easily be taken out.
The one caveat is that Russia is involved. With good Russian intel and anti-sub assistance, they could go after this strength. Their military have had to extensively plan for this situation before during the cold war. So, it's not new to them. Maybe this is an additional benefit to the port for cheap arms deal.
Posted by: screwThePCPolice at March 10, 2008 12:13 PM
It's also interesting that Germany is involved. There was a lot of pressure on this deal because of the possibility that these subs could be used as nuclear missile platforms. So, if Israel fired nukes from Germany-made Dolphin-class subs against Iran and Syria, Germany would not pleased with Israel and might support Russia against Israel in a subsequent battle.
Posted by: screwThePCPolice at March 10, 2008 12:20 PM
Let's just ignore history and dream that the world is different after 5,000 years of recorded murder, theft, and genocide. Your enemy intensely teaches it's children to hate and kill you mercilessly, and you want to negotiate with those monsters! The longer Israel waits, the more destructive the war will be. Anyone who thinks that the Islamists will settle for anything less than Israel's TOTAL DESTRUCTION is STUPID,STUPID,STUPID! Olmert and his crowd are self deluded idiots. How could they even consider for one moment negotiating away the Golan Heights; incredible. They should immediatly attack Syria and Iran as soon as possible. Warmongerer you say? Such an action would be the most merciful and least destructive action in the long run for not only Israel but the Arab people themselves. Anyone who lives long enough will find these words all too true.
Posted by: CJK at March 10, 2008 12:50 PM
I remember that a long time ago when I was in Israel, the dominant feeling amongst all Jews was that this was to be their last ghetto. How much of that 'never again' attitude still exists remains to be seen, but I'm betting that there's enough of it, and the world at large had better be prepared for whatever happens if Israel is pushed too far.
Posted by: jake at March 10, 2008 2:58 PM
I thought of this and posted the other day on another thread.
It is my belief that if Israel were to pack up and move to the other side of the world. Islam would follow them and continue to want their destruction. I realize that this will never happen. The only point I am making is the fact that it has nothing to do with the land. The hatred that Islam has toward Israel is genocidal at it's root.
Posted by: Im.mad.as.HELL! at March 10, 2008 6:56 PM
Interesting comments. I think it's also extremely important to note the very warm relations between Moscow and Israel.
Putin has done a great deal to fight anti Semitism in Russia, about 1,000,000 Israelis can trace their roots back to Russia, and now no visa is needed for travel between the two countries.
I think that Israeli-Russo relations are going to become even better in the future. It's all but natural.
For realpolitik reasons, Anti Jihadist -Sunni- terror cooperation, because Russia holds a lot of influence in Tehran, Israeli demographics, watch the trade take off between technologically advanced Israel and awash with cash Russia. Both countries have very warm relations with 3rd party countries. Serbia, India for example.
It's only going to get better.
Three cheers to that too.
Posted by: ewha1 at March 11, 2008 7:11 AM
About the re arming? A disgrace.
Posted by: ewha1 at March 11, 2008 7:46 AM
(Note: The Comments section is provided in the interests of free speech only. It is mostly unmoderated, but comments that are off-topic, offensive, slanderous, or otherwise annoying stand a chance of being deleted. The fact that any comment remains on the site IN NO WAY constitutes an endorsement by Jihad Watch or Dhimmi Watch, or by Robert Spencer or any other Jihad Watch or Dhimmi Watch writer, of any view expressed, fact alleged, or link provided in that comment.)