Implications of War and Rumors of War: Where Does it Leave Israel & the US?
As with anything else, the world’s events don’t stop for anything, not even for a day of remembering the thousands of victims of September 11, 2001 or the 4 victims of Benghazi on September 11, 2012, both events that were caused by Islamic jihadists. Many of these are the same whom are being hailed now as Freedom Fighters in Syria, and who are being armed and aided by our government.
Many sources have been reporting for months about the so-called “rebels” in Syria, about chemical attacks which some in our government claim Assad’s regime is responsible, yet other sources claim these were committed by the rebels. No matter who used them, both sides are complicit in violent human rights violations.
It was just reported that the Syrian Army is fighting the Islamist rebels to take back Maaloula, a historic Christian town which has seen enough destruction of their thousands of year’s old Christian heritage sites and thousands have been forced to flee. We’ve seen reports of atrocities (Warning, this link is extremely graphic!), committed by rebels in what is no longer a civil war, because jihadists have come in from all over the world to join the rebel forces.
For Israel, our main ally in the Middle East any side of this conflict has possible ramifications for the Israeli people. Back in June I wrote about the Sunni vs Shia war being waged in Syria, and how Islamic nations are supporting one or the other side. What it all boils down to in Syria is a proxy war being waged between the Shia State of Iran and the Sunni Wahibis kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Saudis and Sunni jihadists from around the world are pouring in to throw their support behind the opposition forces while Iranian sympathizers such as Hezbollah and Russia are supporting Assad.
This conflict in Syria did not begin with the so called Arab Spring. The Syrian government has been expecting a return of an insurgency ever since Hafez Assad leveled the city of Hama and drove out the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood in 1982.
Sunnis and Shia both are enemies of the Israeli State. Sunni nations such as Saudi Arabia and the other Gulf States while not all outwardly threatening Israel, the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas and Al Qaida groups are, and have never hidden their desire of wiping Israel off the map. Shia Iranian leaders and terrorist organizations such as Hezbollah have made similar threats.
When both sides of this proxy war hate Israel so much, we can be sure that sometime soon Israel will become a target, but the question remains which side will strike first, Sunni or Shia.
Israel has promised that if an attack comes, they will retaliate, and hard. The Jerusalem Post reported on September 9, that Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman Avigdor Liberman said, “Israel has no interest, will or intention to take part in the Syrian civil war, but Assad must understand in the clearest way possible that if he and his regime do not leave us a choice and he attacks Israel or transfers chemical weapons to Hezbollah, Israel will respond in the harshest way possible, including toppling his regime…. We have no interest in becoming part of what is happening there. But I recommend not testing us or dragging us in, because we are ready.”
Hezbollah has threatened to hit Israel with rockets from Syria if the US attacks Syria. A source claimed that “Hezbollah is controlling 8,000 kilometers [around] Homs and will not hesitate to participate in an attack by firing surface-to-surface missiles from Syria,” and they won’t retaliate from Lebanon, preferring to keep Lebanon out of the war unless Israel attacks.
Beirut promised Israel that they would crack down on Palestinian terror groups after an attack last month, in which rockets were fired from an area around Tyre, Lebanon. While this seems to be a different group, this is evidence that Sunni terrorists are known to be in Lebanon and if the situation in Syria escalates it would be trouble for Israel. Israeli leaders know that they must depend on themselves and even while talks of securing the Assad regime’s chemical weapon stockpile are going on; they are still keeping a wary eye on the situation without interjecting themselves in negotiations.
For us here in the States, we’ve got our own reasons to be wary. News broke that the Taliban struck the US Consulate in Afghanistan, killing 3 and injuring dozens. Our U.S. Embassy and other American interests in Baghdad are under a threat as well from Iran who has promised to attack should the US attack Syria. U.S. officials said they are on alert for Iranian boats in the Persian Gulf, where American warships are positioned but officials also fear Hezbollah could attack the U.S. Embassy in Beirut which caused the US to pull non-essential staff on the 6th of September.
While most talk of attacks are aimed at our assets in the Middle East, reports have been coming out that Al Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahri wants to “bleed America economically” by “provoking it to continue in its massive expenditure on its security, for the weak point of America is its economy, which has already begun to stagger due to the military and security expenditure.”
A few days ago, I was reading a news website with such titles as, The roll of the woman in the Islamic revolution of Iran, From the perspective of the Islam, what is the man?, Pain for the loss of a son – (history of the Prophet of the Islam), Imam Yafar grasp-Sadiq (p) and his school and, The Mahdî (P) and the government of the justice…
These headlines came from an Iranian website, yet I had to use the Spanish translations to get the titles in English. Why? It seems that Iran is using the website to recruit revolutionary sympathizers in Latin America to come through the porous southern border to infiltrate and set up cells in the US. According to U.S. government officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity, the website which came online in 2008, focuses on religion and politics and is one of Iran’s main recruitment and conversion websites for Latin America. The site has links to Iranian television for Spanish speakers, anti-American news stories, and essays on reasons to convert to Islam among other things. (Note: it’s only been 2 days since I searched the site, yet at the time of this writing, the links are no longer working.)
It’s really no secret that Iran and terrorist groups have been setting up shop in South America. Back in 2011 it was known that Iran had been using South American nations as a launching pad for getting into the US. It was reported that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had partners in promoting this policy from Chavez in Venezuela and leaders in Bolivia, and another report recently added Argentine socialist president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner who has also allowed Iran to infiltrate its economic sector, possibly allowing Iran to operate in Paraguay, and Brazil as well by using the porous borders from Latin America’s Free Trade Zones.
This might not seem like much to worry about to many, but considering that as Iran gains more access to Latin America they have potentially built a complete terror network of spies, insurgents and Al Quds military officials across Latin America. Knowing this, our government has failed for years to protect the southern border, allowing terrorists to enter the US who may be disguised as illegal Hispanic aliens.
As far back as 2010 it was reported that Rep. Sue Myrick, R-N.C wrote to then Secretary of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano and requested a report on the extent of the developments that would point to Hezbollah entering the United States, with the help of Mexican drug gangs.
In July of last year, Janet Napolitano admitted that terrorists enter the U.S. from Mexico. When asked if there any credible evidence that reports are accurate and that terrorists are crossing the border with the intent to do harm to US citizens, she replied, that the “southern border–the U.S.-Mexico border–is heavily, heavily staffed at record amounts of manpower, materiel, infrastructure and the like, and we are constantly making sure we’re doing all we can to make that border as safe as possible.”
As we have Congress arguing for Amnesty and unnecessary immigration reform laws, Obama has issued a directive for amnesty by default. This latest directive instructs ICE officials not to enforce immigration laws in some cases. As our congress argues about immigration, our borders remain unsecured with no possibility of knowing just how many terrorists are coming through. And they are coming through.
As the world waits for Obama to decide what to do about Syria, and at a time when over 60 percent of Americans are against waging war in Syria, we all wait and wonder what will happen when this conflict is finally over, whether the US becomes militarily involved or not, and what will the rebels do then.
