Stop me before I kill again?

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These were back-to-back tweets on today's Syria Live Map.

Israel had bombed Syria around 100 times since the Syrian Civil War started. Yesterday Syria finally got lucky and shot down an Israeli jet.
Israel then responded en mass.

Israeli, Syrian and Iranian military forces clashed on Saturday in a series of audacious strikes that could mark a new and dangerous phase in both a long-simmering cross-border conflict and Syria’s long civil war.
The confrontations began before dawn when Israel intercepted what it said was an Iranian drone that had penetrated its airspace from Syria, and the Israeli military said it then attacked what it said was the command-and-control center from which Iran had launched the drone, at a Syrian air base near Palmyra.
One of Israel’s F-16 fighter jets crashed in northern Israel on its way back from the mission after coming under heavy Syrian antiaircraft fire, believed to be the first Israeli plane to be lost under enemy fire in decades.
That prompted a broad wave of Israeli strikes against a dozen Syrian and Iranian targets in Syrian territory. The Israeli military said it hit eight Syrian targets, including three aerial defense batteries, and four Iranian positions that it described as “part of Iran’s military entrenchment in Syria.”

It's Israel's largest bombardment of Syria since 1982.

There's a couple things to keep in mind.
Firstly, Israel's "airspace" is a more vague term than you might think.

Israel is expanding its influence and control deeper into opposition-held southern Syria, according to multiple sources in the area. After failed attempts to ensure its interests were safeguarded by the major players in the war next door, Israel is pushing to implement the second phase of its “safe-zone” project — an attempt to expand a buffer ranging out from the occupied Golan Heights deeper into the southern Syrian provinces of Quneitra and Daraa. The safe zone expansion marks a move toward deeper Israeli involvement in Syria’s civil war.

Secondly, this conflict has international consequences specific to Iran.

A military clash between Israel and Iranian forces in Syria could play into Trump’s hands and those of the congressmen/women who would use such a conflict as proof that new sanctions need to be imposed on Tehran.
Iran is part of a troika, including Russia and Turkey, that has unsuccessfully sought a diplomatic solution to the war. Iran doesn’t want to open another military front with Israel, which could lead Israel to start a war against Hezbollah. This strategy requires Iran to keep a low military profile not only with regard to Israel, but also toward Turkish forces that invaded northern Syria last month to stop Kurdish militias from taking over the border areas.
When it comes to military action in Syria, Iran is far more restricted by diplomatic considerations than Israel is. Israel enjoys almost unlimited U.S. backing and even limited Russian “permission” to operate in Syrian territory, as long as the target isn’t the regime itself but activities and facilities that can be linked to Hezbollah. But Iran, being a full partner both during the war and afterward, is obligated to maintain balance and coordination with the other partners.
However, this balance does not give Israel free rein to test the limits of Russian patience. That is to say, to what extent Russia will allow Israel to carry out targeted actions when it is becoming clear that by turning a blind eye, it could expand and deepen Israeli military involvement – to the extent of fully opening up a military front.

Then there is the fact that Syria isn't happy about being bombed.
With ISIS all but defeat, al-Qaeda losing in the north, and the Kurds increasingly occupied with an offensive by Turkey, Syria finally feels confident enough to issue threats.

Lastly, there is the item of where those Iranian forces that Israel is bombing got their weapons from.

The Pentagon says Iranian-backed militias fighting Islamic State (IS) extremists in Syria used Abrams tanks that the U.S. military had originally provided to the Iraqi Army.

Supplying weapons to both sides of a war is profitable.

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Paris backlash

When Donald Trump took office last year, the assumption was that the transatlantic trade and investment partnership was dead.

The controversial free trade deal between the EU and the U.S., known as TTIP, was already years in development and was a big focus in Europe, particularly with left-wing protesters who said the EU would necessarily have to lower its environmental, health and safety standards to American levels. When Trump was elected on an anti-free-trade platform in 2016, these activists found themselves in the uncomfortable position of being on the same side as the new U.S. president.

Work on TTIP has come to a halt, although the European Commission has been keen to stress that it is not officially dead and talks could continue if the U.S. administration were to indicate interest. No such signal from Washington has been forthcoming.

It is in this context that France’s foreign affairs minister Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne told the French Parliament last week that his country will insist that TTIP never be revived if Trump carries through on his promise to leave the Paris Agreement.

“One of our main demands is that any country who signs a trade agreement with EU should implement the Paris Agreement on the ground,” Lemoyne said. “No Paris Agreement, no trade agreement. The U.S. knows what to expect.”

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one of our F-16 jets?

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dfarrah

CB's picture

Israel releases pictures of what is says are remains of the Iranian drone that penetrated Israeli airspace from Syria

Pentagon:

We support Israel's right to defend itself against any threat

Kerry's Plan B now in effect. This is basically the old Yinon Plan.

https://www.veteranstoday.com/2018/01/06/all-you-need-to-know-about-isra...
All You Need to Know about Israel, The Lobby, Yinon Plan & Trump (video)

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@CB

Pouts at first link

Error 1011 Ray ID: 3ebd66a579319ee1 • 2018-02-12 06:13:15 UTC
Access denied
What happened?

The owner of this website (syria.liveuamap.com) does not allow hotlinking to that resource (/pics/2018/02/10/21614135_0.jpg).

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

snoopydawg's picture

calls self defense when they get hurt. Whaaa, call an ambulance if you can't take the heat. More arrogant hypocrisy from the pentagon. Apparently Israel is the only country that has the right to defend itself. All others are considered to be in the wrong. Typical imperialism bullshit.

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

CB's picture

Putin urges Netanyahu to avoid dangerous escalation following Syria raids
...
In a phone call with Netanyahu, Putin urged him to “avoid any steps that could lead to a new round of confrontation dangerous to everyone in the region,” the Kremlin said.

The Israeli Prime Minister meanwhile told the Russian leader that Israel will defend itself against any “Iranian threats” coming from the territory of Syria. Tel Aviv maintains it is vital to its national security to target Iranian interest in Syria as well as prevent potential arms shipments to Hezbollah.

“I reiterated to him [Putin] our right and our duty to defend ourselves against aggression against us from Syrian territory. We agreed the security coordination between our armies will continue,” Netanyahu said at a press conference on Saturday evening, where he blamed Iran for the Saturday’s incident.
...

Isreal's actions remind me of when ISIS or FSA would lob mortars over the border into an empty Golan desert and Netanyahu would respond by firing missiles at the Syrian army and Damascus airport.

liveuamap.com is a heavily politicized and propagandized web site. According to their descriptors, most SAA and Russian planes only bomb women and children that the Black Hats White Helmets have to rush in and save.

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@CB

liveuamap.com is a heavily politicized and propagandized web site.

Although I've found their coverage of Syria to be mostly fair.
It's their coverage of Ukraine that's so biased I can't look anymore.

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snoopydawg's picture

@CB

with everything that is happening. It almost seems that someone is trying to escalate this little shindig in the sandbox. We are pushing from one direction and Israel is pushing from another. All in the last couple days.

Putin has been very accepting when it's his military and troops being in the cross hairs.

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CB's picture

@snoopydawg
Putin is not going to let the situation in Syria hurt Russia. He is not wedded to the country.

Meanwhile, the US and Israel expose themselves for the war mongers they are. Europe is starting to push back on sanctions, especially Iran. They sunk a lot of money into that country.

With Trump now in charge, the anti-war people may start to awaken. The more the US spends on offense defense the worse off the infrastructure and social benefit becomes. The country has now sunk to 30% world favorability ratings. I look at China, Russia and Iran and watch them rise year after year as the US sinks. It's no longer a uni-polar world. US hegemony is fading at an ever increasingh rate.

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snoopydawg's picture

@CB

if at all. And when they do they leave out pertinent facts about them. They finally covered the genocide in Yemen, but they didn't bother to mention our role in it. Of course when Trump lobbed bombs after the supposed sarin gas attack they were all in favor of that. But I haven't heard them mention that Mattis has said that there is no evidence of Assad using sarin. This article also casts doubt on the 2013 Ghouta event that was reported by the White Helmets, the fake group that the US and U.K. founded and are funded.

Now Mattis Admits There Was No Evidence Assad Used Poison Gas on His People

Lost in the hyper-politicized hullabaloo surrounding the Nunes Memorandum and the Steele Dossier was the striking statement by Secretary of Defense James Mattis that the U.S. has “no evidence” that the Syrian government used the banned nerve agent Sarin against its own people. (...)

America’s credibility was damaged by Colin Powell at the United Nations in 2003 falsely accusing Saddam Hussein of having mobile anthrax laboratories. Fast forward to 2017 and we encounter Nikki Haley in an uncomfortably similar situation at the U.N. Security Council calling for action against yet another non-Western head-of-state based on weak, unsubstantiated evidence.

Now Secretary Mattis has added fuel to the WMD propaganda doubters’ fire by retroactively calling into question the rationale for an American cruise missile strike.

Even though he said that, he makes sure to keep the hysteria going.

Mattis says it is clear that Assad’s government has weaponized and used chlorine gas in the Syrian civil war.

“We’re even more concerned about the possibility of sarin use,” he said. Sarin is a colorless and tasteless toxin that can cause respiratory failure leading to death.

It's clear? Then where's the proof?

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CB's picture

@snoopydawg

Why Is Putin "Allowing" Israel to Bomb Syria?
Not every problem out there is for Russia to solve
Jan 19, 2018
...
I often see that question in emails and in comments, so I wanted to address this issue today.

First, we need to look at some critical assumption implied by this question. These assumptions are:

  1. That Russia can do something to stop the Israelis
  2. That Russia should (or even is morally obliged) to do something.

Let me begin by saying that I categorically disagree with both of these assumptions, especially the 2nd one. Let’s take them one by one.
...

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CB's picture

You can find weekly briefings in English here:
http://www.mid.ru/en/press_service/spokesman/briefings

They are a refreshing breath of fresh air.

Whenever peace is about to break out in Syria, the US and the 800 pound gorilla in the region have to try and squash it. Here's part of the latest:

Briefing by Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Maria Zakharova, Moscow, February 8, 2018
...

Developments in Syria

The developments in Syria last week unfolded in the wake of the successful Syrian National Dialogue Congress, held between January 29-30 in Sochi, despite the salvo of negative publications from the Western media. I have just received another article with a negative view of the Congress. To be more specific, the presumably respectable and impartial Foreign Policy magazine published an article saying that “Russia's highly-touted peace conference to end the war in Syria was an utter debacle.” This is what this impartiality is worth when it comes to summing up the results of the meeting between representatives of the Syrian society.

Together with its partners in the Astana process, Iran and Turkey, as well as the UN, Russia helped them make the first, and maybe the most challenging and important step with the view to bringing about a political settlement and stability in Syria. This was the actual outcome of the forum.
...
The illegal military presence of the US on Syrian territory remains a major challenge to promoting peace in Syria and preserving its unity and territorial integrity.

In the southern part of the country what is left of ISIS fighters use the 55-kilometre zone created unilaterally by the US around its military base near Al Tanf for hiding from Syrian government forces, regrouping and getting arms in order to carry out new attacks in the Syrian desert. ISIS fighters operate without any constraints near Al Tanf, and used to be able to carry out long-distance raids reaching as far as the Aleppo Province. They still threaten a number of transport roads. The US still blocks the road connecting Damascus to Baghdad.

From Russia’s perspective, this situation proves that the instability in Syria is by and large sustained artificially. There are influential actors who are clearly unwilling to use the available opportunities to promote a political settlement in Syria and do away with terrorists in the country. Instead, what we see in Syria is a continuation of attempts to advance a geopolitical agenda in violation of UN Security Council Resolution 2254, which clearly runs counter to the will of the Syrian people expressed without any ambiguity at the Syrian National Dialogue Congress to live in peace in a unified and sovereign country.

We understand where this salvo of negative press on the Sochi Congress comes from and who is behind it, including the Foreign Policy article I quoted today.

Going to be interesting months ahead. ISIS is moving into Afghanistan. Syria got too hot for them. The US may have to send in a another 10,000/20,000 troops or more to prevent another Caliphate from forming. KARMA's a fucking bitch when it comes back to bite you.

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@CB
That in response to North Korea using the Olympics to peacefully reach out to South Korea that we will impose new sanctions

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Meteor Man's picture

@CB @CB

I have just received another article with a negative view of the Congress. To be more specific, the presumably respectable and impartial Foreign Policy magazine published an article saying that “Russia's highly-touted peace conference to end the war in Syria was an utter debacle.”

Why the author of your link was skeptical of FP's impartiality:

The World's Most Dangerous Ideas

The World's Most Dangerous Ideas is a September/October 2004 special report published in Foreign Policy magazine. Eight notable intellectuals were asked to issue an early warning on the ideas or ideologies that will be most destructive in the coming years.

Nominees

War on evil (Robert Wright (journalist))[3]

Business as usual at the U.N. (Samantha Power)

Transhumanism (Francis Fukuyama)

Free money (Alice Rivlin)

Undermining free will (Paul Davies)

Spreading democracy (Eric Hobsbawm)

Religious intolerance (Martha Nussbaum)

Hating America (Fareed Zakaria)

http://www.thefullwiki.org/Foreign_Policy_(magazine)

Wiki has a claim of a "more dynamic" makeover:

The magazine's website recently has had a makeover. Roughly 20 new writers joined the ForeignPolicy.com in a variety of individual and group blogs, as the website went for a more contemporary design and broader mission, borrowing at times from the playbooks of Slate magazine, Politico and The Atlantic in creating a more dynamic site.[2]

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"They'll say we're disturbing the peace, but there is no peace. What really bothers them is that we are disturbing the war." Howard Zinn

orlbucfan's picture

He's already been caught and booted out of power once before for the same thing. If the legal heat is getting to him, he'll ramp up the war games. Typical and sickening. Rec'd!!

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Inner and Outer Space: the Final Frontiers.