‘Israel prefers Bashar Assad to Islamist rebels’
‘Israel prefers Bashar Assad to Islamist rebels’ | The Times of Israel.
( Could this be the first indication that Israel has made a deal with the Russians? This on top of Netanyahu’s visit with Putin and the docking of the Russian warship in Haifa. Lots of contradictory indications. – JW )
Israeli officials say an intact but weakened Syrian president is better for the region than an extremist-ruled Syria, reports the London Times
A weakened Bashar Assad is preferable for Syria and the whole region, to a takeover by rebel forces increasingly ruled by Islamic extremists, Israeli officials said overnight Friday-Saturday.
“Better the devil we know than the demons we can only imagine if Syria falls into chaos and the extremists from across the Arab world gain a foothold there,” said one senior intelligence officer to the London-based Times.
A defense official said Israel had originally thought too little of Assad’s ability to maintain control of his country despite an increasingly bloody and gruesome two-year war. “We originally underestimated Assad’s staying power and overestimated the rebels’ fighting power,” he told the Times.
Suspicions of increasing Islamic influence over rebels forces have been growing for some time, with evidence mounting that al-Qaida- and Salafi-linked groups are gaining power among the forces.
On Wednesday, a gruesome video posted online showed Syrian rebels from al-Nusra Front (Jabhat al-Nusra), the Syrian rebel cell associated with al-Qaeda, invoking sharia law as they sentenced soldiers loyal to Bashar Assad to death, shooting 11 of them in the back of the head.
A similar video circled the web on Tuesday, showing rebels from the Raqqa province publicly executing three men purported to be military officers. The stark horror of the struggle was also underlined early this week with the widespread circulation of a graphic video apparently documenting a Syrian rebel cutting an organ out of the corpse of a slain regime soldier and taking a bite out of it.
On Friday, senior Defense Ministry official Maj.-Gen. (Res) Amos Gilad said in an interview with Israel Radio that Assad is in total control of his country’s weapons systems and is acting sensibly with regard to Israel, seeking to calm escalating tensions between Jerusalem and Damascus following reported Israeli airstrikes earlier this month.
Gilad stressed that Israel is not striving to topple Assad’s regime, and that reported recent IAF attacks on Iranian weapons shipments in Syria en route to Hezbollah are motivated by a desire and an obligation to defend Israel.
Brigadier-General Tamir Hyman, the commander of the IDF division responsible for the Israeli-Syrian border on the Golan Heights, said that Assad’s army “has not fallen apart” despite the two years of fighting, and that its command structure was intact, adding that Israel had “no interest” in one side prevailing over the other in the civil war.
Also underlining growing concerns over friction between Israel and Syria, Maj.-Gen (ret.) Amos Yadlin, the highly-respected former head of the Israeli army’s Military Intelligence hierarchy compared current Israeli-Syrian tensions to the strains that presaged the 1967 Israel-Arab war.
He also said Moscow, by continuing to stand by Assad, was signaling that it was not going to let the US get its hands on Syria.
Yadlin, a one-time fighter pilot, ex-head of IDF Military Intelligence and former Israeli military attaché to the US who now heads a prestigious Tel Aviv think tank, warned that Syria’s embattled president might well retaliate were Israel to again strike at weapons convoys in Syria, as it has done twice this month already.
The Israeli remarks come at the heels of reported international efforts, by the US, Russia, Turkey and the UN, to end the Syrian conflict by bringing together regime officials and opposition forces to negotiate a transfer of power — efforts complicated by Moscow’s announcement Thursday that it would proceed with its planned delivery of the highly sophisticated S-300 air-defense system to Syria, and despite pleas from Israel not to do so.
During their meeting earlier this week, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly warned Russian President Vladimir Putin that the delivery could lead to war.
On Friday, the US slammed Russia’s decision to continue arming the Assad regime, warning that it’s arsenal could be overcome. “It’s at the very least an unfortunate decision that will embolden the regime and prolong the suffering, so it’s ill-timed and very unfortunate,” chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Martin Dempsey told reporters at the Pentagon.
AP, Ron Friedman, Adiv Sterman and Adaam J. Levine Areddy contributed to this report.
Explore posts in the same categories: Uncategorized
WarSclerotic 
May 18, 2013 at 10:56 AM
”Israel prefers Bashar Assad to Islamist rebels’’ ? I’ll tell you what Israel should prefer, but first I’ll make an important statement, for some people here wont get me wrong. Our hearts and regrets are with the Syrian people, the innocent children and women who are slaughtered by a daily basis by Assad militia. After we said that, we’ll say one more thing: what Israel should prefer, from a strategic point of view, is that the Syrian war will continue as long as it takes. It decimates the Syrian regular army and caused heavy damage to Syrian air forces. It keeps the Iranians busy and in very bad position(politically and strategic). It decimates Hezbollah, compromising the Shiite militia in the eyes of the Muslim world, because now Hezbollah is killing muslims and not Israelis. This war has destroyed the Tehran-Damascus-Hezbollah axis. Just before a couple of years or so, we all remember the triumphant hands in the air of Assad, Ahmadinejad and Nasrallah and how difficult the Israeli position was then. A victorious Assad will be a disaster for Israel and the Syrian people; if the jihadists will win, Israel will easy know how to deal with them. And the jihadists wont have behind them the Iranians or the Hezbollah. So, to conclude our assertion, will say this: 1. No banned weapons should reach Hezbollah; 2. No S-300 ground-air missiles should be allowed in the region; 3. The war in Syria is good for Israel(sorry). That is what Israel should prefer.
May 18, 2013 at 2:45 PM
we need to get the Russians sucked in iran will be a easy target then
May 18, 2013 at 1:01 PM
Sounds like some back channel conversations with the Syrian government have taken place. Not a surprise because Assad understands the end result of an Israeli intervention. Of course, in the final analysis it is not what Assad says, it is what Assad actually will do that is important. Regardless, 100,000 people are dead in Syria in a conflict that has taken the schisms that had existed within Arab society and have created deep divisions and hatred that will last for several lifetimes for revenge seekers. In addition, 1.5 million people exist as refugees. Importantly, all of this disaster is taken place within miles of the Israeli border. No, I do not vote for sitting on our hands while they keep fighting. I don’t care if we are laughed at, spit on, and hated….but self-respect demands that do something diplomatically while maintaining our guard.
May 18, 2013 at 1:18 PM
Everything is depending on the white house, and presidents are not for ever, so a deal as i said before will be the smartest move for Israel at the moment.
I try to stay so objective as possible to make a opinion about strategical matters.
Not only assad is slaughtering people but the ¨rebellions to ¨ is as it seems to be a typical islamic thing , ( yes i can give you some more background on that )
I do not think that a brotherhood and or hetzbollah neighbor is a better option for Israel,as long iran is a local power what for sure will happen as the rebellions are winning,
There is no best ultimate solutions at the moment for this problem just temporally solutions.
However there is a solution for a way longer time but that one is unspeakable.
Some thing between is trowing a stick between 2 dogs and let them fight for it. keep them occupied, not nice but it is war.
After they are done whit there killing you trow a already standing by government in to the quotation and it is done, oke a car bom once or twice in a year but what the heck.
And Israel stays vigilant about there border security and will no accept one bomb or rocket on there soil.
Yep i know it will drag on for a lot more time until somebody whit a brain and a correct norm and value packet sits in the white house.
After all they are all mo slims and they have a holly duty !!
Eyes on dar al islaam ! and Israel is the sand in there eyes. ( and the whole west but first things first )
This problem is much bigger than only syrie and iran
BIBI watch your back,
and at putin : tear down that cold war wall in the end you will lose anyway so come playing in our ball park
Better for Rusia better for Israel and better for the west.
after that we kick the oic out of the un and start building a new world, china will go along if they see there profit.( they do not have realy an other choice !
May 18, 2013 at 2:08 PM
Russia and Israel have no wish to see Assad removed and replaced by Islamic fanatics and terrorist groups
May 18, 2013 at 2:43 PM
Well its been passed to NATO for forward and operational planning This is the hint and reason for news blackout in Europe,apparently the expose oif the Moscow CIA station chief was the last straw ,”CIA Cant identify anything”
“On Friday, the US slammed Russia’s decision to continue arming the Assad regime, warning that it’s arsenal could be overcome. “It’s at the very least an unfortunate decision that will embolden the regime and prolong the suffering, so it’s ill-timed and very unfortunate,” chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Martin Dempsey told reporters at the Pentagon.”
May 18, 2013 at 2:57 PM
Joseph,
I have an impression that this site could benefit from, as it were, a more social design. Perhaps you could add rating options for comments – I don’t know if this is at all possible at wordpress? I am thinking about “thumbs up” or a non-Facebook “like” button?
I am sure sometimes we all appreciate a comment or article to a degree that we want to express it, but not necessarily to leave another comment.
Just something to think about.
May 22, 2013 at 3:03 PM
On a scale of 1 to 10, I rate the use of ratings a solid 1.
May 18, 2013 at 3:10 PM
yes, that’s my hypothesis too.
May 18, 2013 at 3:48 PM
Hardline rebels in control in southern Syria say their ambition is to regain the Golan Heights, conquered by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War.
The US, Britain and Turkey are urging the Syrian opposition — which will meet in Istanbul on Thursday — to join the talks without Mr Assad’s removal being a precondition. Russia has been asked to press the Syrian regime to send senior representatives.
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/world/middleeast/article3768370.ece
May 18, 2013 at 5:43 PM
Its about time to make some clarifications on the issue(Assad yes or Assad not) from the Israeli point of view:
1. Before Israel is continuing its operations in Syria, its crucial to declare ”we prefer Assad” for nobody on the Syrian part should think
that the real goal for the Israeli side is to bring Assad down.
2. So, in this light, any Israeli actions in Syria should be taken only in the context of banning Hezbollah for certain sophisticated weapons.
3. Mr. Assad don’t want any Israeli intervention in Syria, especially that now ”we are friends again” ? Mr. Assad should restrain himself from being a part of the important Iran-Hezbollah Express.
4. If Syria, in the final stage, will be imparted into cantons, that is the best for Israel.
5. Meantime, Israel must take heavy decisions regarding the real problem, Iran. We think that the proper time is approaching fast.
May 18, 2013 at 5:48 PM
A kind of balkanization, i read that is an other peace of opinion.
May 19, 2013 at 3:14 AM
While I agree with Luis that it seems like Iran war is fast approaching, I can’t help but remember back in 2006 when Israeli officials were telling the media they’d strike Iran in the next few months. I read those warnings and believed them.
Here we are 7 years later still waiting……
May 18, 2013 at 5:53 PM
“It’s at the very least an unfortunate decision that will embolden the regime and prolong the suffering,” Prolong the suffering? They talk like once Assad is gone it is all over. The peoples suffering is just getting started. The folks that will take over after Assad will be just as dirty rotten and mean as Assad. This whole thing has nothing to do with freedom.