by Dr. Reuven Berko
The Syrian army, which cultivated terrorist organizations in order to harm Israel, has found itself fighting the very monsters it raised in its back yard. The nightmare scenarios it wished on the Israel Defense Forces have become the Syrian military's reality
The issue of the
"Syrian regime in the clutches of Ifrit" -- an infernal jinn of Islam --
is expected to be the topic of the day on Tuesday at Al Jazeera, as the
Qatari television station seeks to delve into the question of whether
all Alawis should be made to pay for the sins of President Bashar
Assad's regime.
Al Jazeera is gearing up for the Syrian regime's demise, and it seems the vultures are circling the carcass.
The Syrian army, which
cultivated terrorist organizations in order to harm Israel, has found
itself fighting the very monsters it raised in its back yard. The
nightmare scenarios it wished on the Israel Defense Forces have become
the Syrian military's reality, serving as a lesson for terrorists
worldwide on how to fight a cumbersome, dying military giant.
Hamas operatives
training in Syria had hoped to use the same model against Israel -- that
is until they met the IDF's crushing response during Operation
Protective Edge.
The organizations
fighting Assad are a collection of sectarian Islamic terrorist groups,
which are at odds with each other as much as they are with the regime.
Nevertheless, these
groups have been able to strike the Syrian army, negate its comparative
advantage in the field, seize its strongholds, deplete its munitions,
and kill many of its soldiers, mostly Alawis and Hezbollah operatives,
and they have managed to do so despite the support lent to Assad's
regime by Iran and Russia.
It is difficult to
monitor the chaos in Syria. The battles raging over control of various
key cities reflect the gradual collapse of the regime, which is losing
the territorial continuity it needs to maintain nationwide supply
routes. All Assad has left is a loose grip on Damascus, the port cities,
and the northeastern Qalamoun Mountains, where the Syrian-Lebanese
border, which is used as the last supply routes to Hezbollah, runs.
The situation in Syria
has the markings of the final battle, and the regime is acting like a
wounded animal, lashing out at the Syrian people and whatever is left of
the country's infrastructure. Assad knows his actions cannot change his
inevitable defeat, and reports coming out of Damascus portray his
actions as frantic, panicked, conflicted, and exhausted.
Despite the thousands
of fatalities and millions of refugees the civil war has caused, Assad
maintains that he is Syria's legitimate ruler, although some signs may
indicate that the unrelenting president is willing to negotiate a
solution to the prolonged conflict.
Anyone following the
Syrian media cannot help but be impressed by the wonders of its
photomontages: Studio interviews with government officials are held
against images of lush gardens and sunny skies, in a bid to inspire
soporific idyll. In reality, government buildings and strategic sites
are under constant rebel fire, and the regime is employing every
instrument of destruction at its disposal against civilians, despite
knowing it will do little to halt the progress of the Sunni Islamic
organizations.
It is hard to keep
track of the number of terrorist organizations currently trying to
clobber Assad's army to death, and anyone trying to do so could quite
literally lose their head. The main groups in play are the Nusra Front
and the Islamic State group; some rebel groups seek to install an
Islamic caliphate in Syria, while others see it as an emirate, or a
separate national territory.
These groups have no
love lost between them, but they share one common goal: They all wish to
topple Assad and claim Syria for themselves.
The rebels'
achievements in the Syrian periphery have prompted an effort by the
regime to slow their progress through suburbs of Damascus, so to
evacuate regime officials' families from the area, and move them west.
But rebel forces are now threatening the coastal city of Latakia, using
its surrounding maintains for cover.
Assad still controls
Aleppo, but signs of a hasty retreat have become evident there, as well.
The geographic noose placed around the Assad's neck has made the
Qalamoun Mountains on the Syria-Lebanon border the regime and
Hezbollah's last lifeline, and together with the Lebanese army, they are
gearing to try and stem the Islamist flood.
Meanwhile, Turkey, Saudi Arabia,
and Qatar are providing the Islamists with funds and weapons, and the
American strikes against Islamic State in Iraq are actually bolstering
the group's position toward Assad, who is Iran's lackey. The fact that
Syria is about to plunge deeper into chaos has the U.S. rethinking
whether Assad's case is one of better the devil you know. Heaven help
us.
Dr. Reuven Berko
Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_opinion.php?id=12449
Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.
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