Israel Under Siege
By Joseph Klein.
The Syrian regime’s civil war with armed rebel forces is spilling outside of its borders into Israeli territory. In recent days, Israel has witnessed incursions by Syrian tanks and mortar shelling. Meanwhile, this past weekend, Israel’s Negev population has been hit by over 100 missiles launched by Palestinian jihadists from Gaza. The Palestinians also fired a sophisticated anti-tank missile at an Israeli jeep traveling along Israel’s border with Gaza, injuring four Israeli soldiers. So far, Israel has been showing remarkable restraint in the face of these multi-location assaults. But Israel’s patience is undoubtedly wearing thin.
Whether the Syrian incursions in the north and the Palestinian rocket attacks from Gaza are somehow coordinated, under the command of their common puppet masters in Tehran, remains to be seen. However, it would be naive to assume that the simultaneous assaults are a pure coincidence.
Israel’s enemies appear to want to lure Israel into engaging in full blown reprisals, which they would use as ammunition for their propaganda campaign to delegitimize Israel in the international community
So far, Israel has not taken the bait. Although it reserves its inherent right of self-defense, Israel has held back from launching any full scale air or ground attack against the Syrian troops and weaponry in the vicinity of the Israeli-Syrian border or against the Palestinian jihadists in Gaza.
Syria’s latest hostile act occurred on November 11th, at the same time that the rockets from Gaza were raining down on Israeli population centers. The Syrians fired mortar shells, which hit an Israeli Defense Force (IDF) post and an Israeli community in the Golan Heights area adjacent to the Israeli-Syrian border. This was the second time that Syrian shells exploded in the Golan Heights area during the last week.