Trump & Syria

President Trump’s announcement on withdrawing US troops from Syria seems to have taken everyone by surprise, not least General Jim Mattis who is resigning as his Secretary of Defence.

The simple explanation is that it’s simply another election promise he wants to deliver, at the end of an impressive ticked list unmatched by any president in living memory – let alone just halfway through his first term. But to bring back troops from harm’s way and cut America’s losses in blood and treasure one would have expected the first priority would have been Afghanistan, a total basket-case of a campaign where, after 17 years of American engagement, the Taliban still hold more territory than when it all started. Syria has much more strategic value, which is why Russia, Iran and Turkey are so heavily invested there.

OK, so Trump has fired from the hip as usual, the optics are poor and the signalling to Russia, Iran and what’s left of ISIS is bad … but what’s good about this decision?
Well, for one thing it reduces the chance of World War III blowing up on Israel’s doorstep. It’s been terribly worrying to see US, Russian and Israeli warplanes whizzing about in such a cramped airspace, with the most sophisticated S300 antiaircraft missiles deployed on hair-triggers down on the ground where Iranian fanatics pray three times a day for the apocalypse which will usher in the messiah of their ‘Hidden Imam’. The whole scenario looked like a prologue for Armageddon.

Then there is the reality that the existence of 2,000 US servicemen in Syria was only ever symbolic and would never have made much difference on the battlefield. Israel has never wanted American soldiers to die on its behalf – all we ever wanted was America to give us whatever planes and other weaponry and spare parts we needed to defend ourselves, and the all-important QME (qualitative military edge).

I can still remember quite vividly the desperate figure of Golda Meir begging President Nixon for an arms airlift during the heat of the Yom Kippur War and how not one single European country allowed those transport planes to refuel on their territory.

Then there is the Trump ‘deal of the century’ peace plan. It has been said that he would exact a high price for his embassy move to Jerusalem. Well, with this withdrawal – which will be seen by many as abandoning Israel to its fate with Putin and Khomeini on the northern border – the deal calculus may change.

Lastly, I look at Russia and Iran. Putin always wanted a warm water port for his navy and now has it on the Syrian coast at Tartus. This is next to Latakia, on which he’s established a Russian air base. No force of 2,000 or even 200,000 American troops was ever going to dislodge Putin from these prized bases. As for Iran, it’s clear to me that the most effective way to dislodge them from Syria as well as Yemen, Lebanon and Gaza, is to bankrupt the evil regime at home. And the best means of achieving that is through Trump’s crippling sanctions.

The irony is that those European countries which in 1973 refused landing rights to US planes resupplying Israel in her desperate hour of need are the same as those now protecting Iran from Trump’s sanctions. Britain, France and Germany should hang their heads in shame for the Faustian deal they’ve done with the devils in Tehran.

Trump’s knee-jerk decisions may be questionable, but Europe’s considered policies are truly shameful.

Israel Needs Assad

Whilst Jerusalem maintains a diplomatic silence, it is disturbing to hear reports that American-Jewish groups are lobbying for Congress to approve a strike on Syria.  Most people agree that the missile option is by now so delayed and so watered-down as to be a waste of time.

An American president who was really serious about punishing Assad’s war crimes would do what Ariel Sharon did to Hamas leaders Sheikh Ahmed Yassin and Abdul Aziz Rantisi.  Two targeted and precision assassinations in the space of a month.  Without doubt America has all the tools and resources needed to do the same. And if Assad were taken out in this way, all future tyrants would be in no doubt that use of WMD was a red line drawn in their very own blood.

Sadly Barack Obama is not that kind of president, and whilst it is doubtful what his neutered missile strike will achieve, the only certainty is that – like the First Gulf War - it will cause blowback on Israel in some form or another. Israel doesn’t need this and our tiny country shouldn’t always have to pay in collateral damage for the misdeeds of Arab tyrants.

To vote against a US missile strike is not to ignore the victims of Assad’s terrorism and the plight of some 2 million refugees.  They are caught up in a vicious sectarian war which no Western intervention will end.  To quote Sarah Palin: ‘let Allah sort it out’.  

But at least these Syrians have someplace to go; a choice of Turkey or 22 other countries in the Arab league. That leaves them far better off than the 800,000 Jews who were expelled from many of those same Arab countries and for whom Palestine was the only available refuge, albeit barred by the British.

The government of Israel, and its supporters in America, must remain selfishly focused on its own vital national and security interests. And for this they are probably better-off with Assad remaining in place. 

He is the devil they already know. 

But he has also now graduated as the new pariah on the world stage.  

After what he has done, it’s doubtful we will hear many voices pressuring Israel to return land to Mr Assad.  

And the retention of the Golan Heights is one of the most vital interests of the State of Israel and an enduring  existential imperative which must supersede  all day-to-day crises and distractions beyond our borders.

Humanitarian Corridor

At over 11,000 the Syrian death-toll is as monumental as the UN and West's vaccilation.

Emergency action and censure resolutions are reserved strictly for Israel.

France has today called for a "Humanitarian Corridor" to be set up.

The truth is, there is only ONE humanitarian corridor in all the Middle East - and it's called Israel.

When Self Defence is a Provocation

Today we hear that Defence Minister Ehud Barak has decided against distributing gas masks despite intelligence warnings of Syria's stockpiling of bio weapons and its possession of missiles capable of exploding viruses over Israeli cities.

Barak feels that this precautionary distribution may be viewed as a hostile act or a preparation for war.

And this is the Syria that Mr Olmert plans to make peace with???

That Israel is not prepared for the onslaught being planned by the panoply of Iranian terror proxies was made clear last summer as 25% of the country cowered under a hail of missiles.

Now the government announces that it not prepared to make the preparations.
Lest they be viewed as a provocation.

Since when was self-defence a provocation?

And if such a lunatic theory holds water in the sphere of diplomacy, let the citizens have their masks and leave the government geniuses to fend for themselves.