On Syrian missiles, Netanyahu may be too late
On Syrian missiles, Netanyahu may be too late | The Times of Israel.
Arabic daily reports that Russia has already given Syria its advanced anti-aircraft missile system
An American and British pledge to step up the pressure on Bashar Assad to resign leads the news in several Arab dailies Tuesday, amid reports that the Syrian president’s forces have made significant advances on the ground.
Saudi daily A-Sharq Al-Awsat features a photo of US President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron shaking hands at the end of a press conference in Washington Monday, in a story dealing primarily with the arrest of nine Turkish nationals suspected of carrying out the deadly attacks that killed 46 people in the border town of Reihanli on Saturday.
Turkish sources tell the daily that the nine men admitted to preparing the attacks months in advance, and that they are part of the Acilciler group which maintains close ties with Syrian intelligence.
London-based daily Al-Hayat reports that in their meeting, which lasted over an hour, Obama and Cameron primarily discussed the Syrian issue, congratulating Russia and President Vladimir Putin for organizing a new peace conference.
Quoting “Russian experts,” the daily also reports that Russia is unlikely to oblige Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by canceling the sale of advanced S-300 anti-aircraft missiles to Syria. Netanyahu is scheduled to land in Moscow on Tuesday and hold talks with President Putin.
Indeed, the London-based daily Al-Quds Al-Arabi reports that Russia delivered S-200 missiles to Syria at the start of the crisis two years ago and trained the Syrian army on how to use them. According to the daily, the S-200 has a range of 150 kilometers and can hit a target accurately.
The daily reported that Syria may even already have the more advanced S-300 ant-aircraft system. “The same source says that Benjamin Netanyahu may hear from the Russians that the Russian ministry of defense has given Damascus S-300 missiles and that the matter is done, as this system is already in Syrian territory. The source hinted that the next stage is completely handing over the command process over this system to the Syrians,” reads the article in Al-Quds Al-Arabi.
A-Sharq Al-Awsat columnist Ghassan Imam claims, in an op-ed titled “Hezbollah is killing Syrians to establish an Alawite state,” that the maneuverability of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Syria is limited due to the significant Alawite population in the Hatay province, known in Arabic as Iskenedrun, where the explosions took place.
“The existence of an Alawite minority in Turkey was an implicit reason for the lack of maneuverability by the Erdogan regime in pressuring and threatening the Assad regime,” writes Imam. “True, the Turkish regime aided the Syrian opposition factions. But the remnants of Arab Alawites in Iskenderun (Hatay) were fed up with the Syrian refugees of Kurdish and Sunni Arab origin, and especially those belonging to the Nusra Front.”
“In my humble opinion, the Reihanli bombing was perpetrated by this extremist Jihadist movement, in response to the harassment by the Alawites of Iskendrun. But Turkey accuses the Syrian regime of perpetrating it. The ball is now in the Turkish court. Will Erdogan react? Where? How? Or will he remain silent, settling for support of the revolution across the border?”
Imam might be on to something. Turkish demonstrators on the Syrian border on Monday called for Turkish non-intervention in the Syrian crisis. “Remove your hands from Syria,” they chanted, calling for the removal of “Jihadist killers” from the city of Reihanli, Al-Jazeera reports.
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WarSclerotic 
May 14, 2013 at 12:53 PM
Exactly what we thought. The truth is that Israel must stop fouling around and get down to the business. The coming days seem ideal for us.
May 14, 2013 at 1:53 PM
Welcome aboard Luis….
May 14, 2013 at 2:08 PM
John is too harsh sometimes, but I must say that a certain hunch tells me that the cake is cooked.
May 14, 2013 at 2:09 PM
My point was that Netanyahu is not meeting with Putin over the missiles. It’s CLEARLY something much bigger. Gotta tell you, my friends… My stomach is feeling many butterflies at the moment.
God protect the good.
May 14, 2013 at 2:21 PM
Yes, its not the S-300 issue. What Bibi can tell Putin on that?
”Hey, Putin, how’s going ma’ man? Feeling good? I have a little problem with those S-300…what? What are you saying? You already gave those to the Syrians? Bad luck, but how about the Russian teams manning those toys? What?…They are already on the ground? Ok, then. See you around…the Middle East.”
May 14, 2013 at 3:34 PM
As i said here at May 14, 2013 at 12:52 AM
https://warsclerotic.wordpress.com/2013/05/12/lebanese-sources-intense-israeli-air-ground-activity/#comments
and this
The surface-to-air missiles are a small problem,” Rubin said, with varying degrees of severity. “The big problem is Russia itself.”
May 14, 2013 at 2:29 PM
Luis, my precived harshness is my frustration at the Wests seeming nievate when dealing with evil. Hitler could not be talked to/trusted and the same is true with radical Islam. The West nearly wiated too long to deal with the evil in WWII. This time they’re doing it again only worse, atomics are a real danger in the hands of such evil. Playing the waiting games is simply playing the losing game.
May 14, 2013 at 3:08 PM
But in the end, it was the west (USA) that turned the tide of WWII and sealed Hitler’s fate while defeating the Japanese. Back then, there were no rapid response forces and a President actually went to Congress for a declaration of war.
Furthermore, the military was nothing it is today. Wartime production had a long way to go to equip our soldiers for war and things just didn’t move that fast compared to today.
My point?? Maybe the USA just wasn’t fully prepared to just jump in and declare war and maybe a war meant full commitment back then, a ‘do or die’ commitment so to speak. Not the bullshit fighting we see today with all the endless rules of engagement killing so many of our brave young troops. The same young troops we see coming home without limbs or worst.
Hold on…I feel another point welling up in my feeble mind….if we cannot commit to all out war, then stay the hell out until our minds are made up to WIN quickly and decisively. In the end, a lot of lives will be saved and a hell of a lot of human misery will be avoided.
May 14, 2013 at 3:56 PM
You forget to mentioned Russia in the second world war, a very important factor in the outcome of that war.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Front_%28World_War_II%29
May 14, 2013 at 4:16 PM
Agree with every word. Instead of the ”phony war” and ”bombarding” the Reich soldiers with pamphlets(!), England and France should invade through the poor German defense line in the West, 1939, putting an early end to Hitler’s adventure. By the way, his generals didn’t get why the allies are not doing that.
Hitler ”promised” them that no ally attack will occur and it proved that his gamble was correct. 60-80 millions died after that in the WWII. The Iranian gamble – which, in fact, is a gambit – must to be put to an end.
May 14, 2013 at 4:36 PM
Bravo Luis, could not have said it better myself ornery self.. ;0)
May 14, 2013 at 4:39 PM
Thanks, John.
May 14, 2013 at 3:55 PM
I must repeat, In my humble opinion, “playing the waiting game is playing the losing game.”
May 14, 2013 at 4:08 PM
Nope not this time, Russia have to get first the offer they can not refuse.
Is BIBI the messenger ?
a sort of Kennedy deal
Read this at May 14, 2013 at 3:47 PM
https://warsclerotic.wordpress.com/2013/05/14/netanyahu-travels-to-russia-for-missile-talks/#comments
May 14, 2013 at 4:19 PM
Would Russia have even been involed if Israel took care of business years ago. “The longer the wait, more tangled the knot.”
May 14, 2013 at 4:26 PM
@ John
I do not know, but what would the world be if we have give Patton permission to march to Moscow.
Questions whit no answer
May 14, 2013 at 4:37 PM
Patton was not been given permission to blitz to Berlin so this is a very hypothetical ”what if ” question. The nations were tired of war.
But there is no doubt that heavy mistakes have been done by the allies commander, Dwight Eisenhower, to the end of the war.
May 14, 2013 at 5:17 PM
Nope just politics, remember Yalta where the world has been divided in power blocks.
Nothing new just plain geo politics.
Lets get a bit harsh, just a sell out for millions of people and many years later the fail of the iron curtain, do you get it ??
We have seen this the last 60 years again and again, people have nothing to do whit it , just a struggle for the ultimate control,
We are just in a new phase of a old struggle for world domination.
What ever it takes !!!
Hundreds of years ago it was easy to control a million people and difficult to kill a million of people , now it is easy to kill a million of people and difficult to control them, so the paradigm changed.
Brzezinski doctrine, change the hart and minds of the people so they believe in it.
( not only Brzezinski but also the frankfurter shule )
A brave new world.
Be happy and keep your soul in sanity but be aware for the mean dog !