by Lilach Shoval, Yonni Hirsch, Reuters and Israel Hayom Staff
New York Times says Israeli officials are discussing creating a force of Syrians who live near the cease-fire line • Air Force chief Maj. Gen. Amir Eshel: "If Syria collapses tomorrow we could find ourselves very quickly inside this cauldron."
A Lebanese Sunni gunman
holds a rifle in Tripoli, Thursday. Tripoli has recently seen a spate of
violence between pro and anti-Syria militias.
|
Photo credit: Reuters
Air Force chief Maj. Gen.
Amir Eshel: "The homefront will be hit, no matter how much we defend
it."
|
Photo credit: Sivan Faraj  |
Israeli officials are discussing establishing a
proxy force inside Syria made up of residents of villages close to the
cease-fire line, perhaps led by the minority Druze sect in Syria, which
also has some 20,000 members living over the border in
Israeli-controlled territory, The New York Times reported on Thursday.
According to the paper, several Israeli
officials who follow Syria closely said Israeli security forces had
already been quietly working with villagers who support neither the
government nor the rebels, supplying moderate humanitarian aid and
maintaining intense intelligence activity.
However, The Times reported that its sources
said any notion of arming such villagers was remote if not far-fetched,
noting that the main Druze leadership in Syria had so far stayed
steadfastly out of the conflict.
Amid the growing tension with Syria, Israel
Air Force chief Maj. Gen. Amir Eshel said on Wednesday that Israel was
poised for a large-scale assault on Syria to prevent advanced weapons
reaching jihadist rebels or Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon if President
Bashar al-Assad was toppled.
Addressing a security conference, Eshel said
Israeli warplanes could be repelled by Syria's formidable,
Russian-supplied anti-aircraft systems.
"If Syria collapses tomorrow we could find
ourselves very quickly inside this cauldron, and on a very large scale,
because this enormous arsenal is parked there, just waiting to be
looted, and could be turned [against Israel]," he told the Fisher
Institute for Air and Space Studies near Tel Aviv.
"We may find ourselves having to take action,
on a very broad scale, within a very short period of time," Eshel said.
"It does not mean we will act, but that we have to be ready to."
He said fighting could escalate to include
attacks on Israel by Hezbollah and by Iran, who both back Assad, and
that the air force might have to employ "the full spectrum of its
might."
Beset by the more than two-year insurgency
that Hezbollah been helping his army battle, Assad has not retaliated to
Israel's reported airstrikes. But there are signs his restraint may
wane, seen in a shooting attack by Syrian troops at an Israeli patrol in
the Golan Heights on Tuesday.
While militarily superior to Syria, Israel
fears this edge will be blunted by Assad's Russian-made air and coast
defenses, especially if Israeli forces are stretched over three fronts.
Eshel said the most formidable of the Russian
anti-aircraft systems available, the S-300, was "on its way" to Syria,
without elaborating on where he was getting his information.
"Air superiority is critical, and we must contend with a new generation of [Syrian] capabilities," Eshel said.
In separate remarks about Syria to the
conference, Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon said: "There are those who
are trying to bring weapons systems into the area that are liable to
harm our aerial and naval supremacy ... and this must be prevented in a
responsible and considered manner."
Ya'alon said that despite recent gains against the Syrian rebels by Assad and Hezbollah forces, Damascus was in decline.
"Assad is losing Syria," he said. "There is a
sense that he is charging ahead because of the Russian support, but that
story is not over -- it could end suddenly, or continue for years as a
bloody civil war."
Ya'alon played down the prospect of anyone on
the Syrian side starting a war with Israel, "because they understand the
heavy price they would pay."
But Israelis should also not anticipate an easy victory, Eshel told Reuters on the sidelines of the conference.
"People are looking for a knockout, for things
to be surgical and sterile, but they won't be," he said. "The homefront
will be hit, no matter how much we defend it."
Meanwhile, Washington threatened on Wednesday
to increase support for Syria's rebels if Assad continues to refuse to
discuss a political end to the civil war.
Rebels called for reinforcements to combat an
"invasion" by Hezbollah and its Iranian backers, days after Assad's
forces launched an offensive against a strategic town that could prove
to be a turning point in the war.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said
several thousand Hezbollah fighters were taking part in the conflict,
with Iranian support on the ground.
Forces loyal to Assad have made gains in
recent days, but these were "very temporary," Kerry told a news
conference in Amman before a meeting of the Friends of Syria group, made
up of Western and regional countries lined up against Assad.
"Just last week, obviously, Hezbollah
intervened very, very significantly," Kerry said. "There are several
thousands of Hezbollah militia forces on the ground in Syria who are
contributing to this violence, and we condemn that."
Speaking before the meeting, Kerry told
reporters, "In the event that the Assad regime is unwilling to negotiate
... in good faith, we will also talk about our continued support and
growing support for the opposition in order to permit them to continue
to be able to fight for the freedom of their country."
In a boost to the rebels, the U.S. Senate Foreign
Relations Committee voted on Tuesday for legislation that would send
arms to moderate members of the Syrian opposition, the first time U.S.
lawmakers have approved such action. There is less enthusiasm for arming
the rebels in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, and
it is not clear whether a Senate bill would get through Congress.
Lilach Shoval, Yonni Hirsch, Reuters and Israel Hayom Staff
Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=9461
Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.
No comments:
Post a Comment