[News] Why has Israel embraced al-Qaida’s branch in Syria?
Anti-Imperialist News
news at freedomarchives.org
Wed Jun 17 12:48:55 EDT 2015
Why has Israel embraced al-Qaida’s branch in Syria?
Rania Khalek <https://electronicintifada.net/people/rania-khalek> The
Electronic Intifada
<https://electronicintifada.net/people/electronic-intifada> 16 June 2015
*https://electronicintifada.net/content/why-has-israel-embraced-al-qaidas-branch-syria/14619*
During his 2014 address
<http://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/Full-text-of-Prime-Minister-Netanyahus-UN-speech-376626>
to the UN General Assembly, Benjamin Netanyahu
<https://electronicintifada.net/tags/benjamin-netanyahu> declared that
“fighting militant Islam is indivisible.”
The Israeli prime minister’s crude attempts to conflate ISIS
<https://electronicintifada.net/tags/isis> with Hamas
<https://electronicintifada.net/tags/hamas> should not be allowed to
conceal an important truth: Israel aids the forces of “militant Islam”
when it is considered opportune to do so.
The most egregious example of such aid in recent times has been Israel’s
support for Jabhat al-Nusra
<https://electronicintifada.net/tags/jabhat-al-nusra>, al-Qaida’s
<https://electronicintifada.net/tags/al-qaida> franchise in Syria
<https://electronicintifada.net/tags/syria>, as witnessed by UN
peacekeeping forces stationed in the occupied Golan Heights
<https://electronicintifada.net/tags/golan-heights>.
Israel’s collusion with al-Qaida has been virtually ignored by the
American media, with a few exceptions. For example, /The Wall Street
Journal/ reported
<http://www.wsj.com/articles/al-qaeda-a-lesser-evil-syria-war-pulls-u-s-israel-apart-1426169708>
in March that Israel has been treating wounded al-Nusra fighters and
then sending them back into the Golan to battle Hizballah
<https://electronicintifada.net/tags/hizballah> and the Syrian army.
Other media outlets have danced around the issue.
/The Washington Post/ columnist David Ignatius, a frequent conduit for
information from official sources, mentioned
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/a-new-cooperation-on-syria/2015/05/12/bdb48a68-f8ed-11e4-9030-b4732caefe81_story.html>,
in passing, last month that “Jordan
<https://electronicintifada.net/tags/jordan> and Israel have developed
secret contacts with members of the Jabhat al-Nusra group along their
borders.” But he failed to elaborate.
In a video report released by Vice News in December — in which Israeli
soldiers are shown transferring wounded Syrian opposition fighters to an
Israeli hospital — the narrator acknowledges
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G785kB8OKcU> that the fighters could be
affiliated with al-Nusra.
Israeli media has been slightly more open about Israel’s embrace of
al-Qaida. The news website /Ynet/ has posted footage
<http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4655669,00.html> of Israeli
army medics treating wounded Syrian opposition fighters, noting, “It is
likely that most if not all of these nationals are rebels from the rival
jihadist Islamic State and al-Nusra Front groups.”
This raises questions about the legality of sending members of one of
the world’s most notorious and active armed extremist groups back into
battle, especially since this particular group has been the primary
target of a global war for more than a decade led by Israel’s greatest
benefactor, the United States. (To be fair, though, the US is no
stranger to backing
<http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jun/03/us-isis-syria-iraq> al-Qaida
and ISIS to undermine its adversaries.)
A US Defense Department spokesperson declined to comment for The
Electronic Intifada about Israel’s apparent alliance with al-Qaida. The
US State Department
<https://electronicintifada.net/tags/state-department> did not respond
to a request for comment.
Material aid
As Israel’s neighbors absorbed millions of displaced Syrians fleeing a
war that, according to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
<https://electronicintifada.net/tags/ban-ki-moon> has killed
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/world/syria-220000/> more than
220,000 people, the Israeli government has painted
<http://www.algemeiner.com/2013/09/12/syrian-shells-land-in-golan-heights-as-israeli-hospitals-treat-victims-of-war/>
its medical care for those wounded in Syria as altruistic. But only a
third of the 1,500 treated by Israel have been women and children,
according to the March report in /The Wall Street Journal/.
The rest have been fighters who Israeli officials admit are not screened
and likely belong to al-Nusra.
Once it became undeniable, Israel confessed it was treating fighters,
but claimed that they were moderates.
But after al-Nusra captured and ejected UN peacekeepers in the Golan
Heights last August, there was no longer any doubt that al-Nusra was the
dominant force among opposition fighters in the area.
Since then, /Ynet/ has resorted to whitewashing al-Nusra’s connections
to al-Qaida. Citing unnamed Israeli officials, the publication claims
<http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4659618,00.html> that
al-Nusra’s members are “simply local residents who joined the
organization to benefit from the logistical and financial support it
offers them.”
Retired Brigadier General Michael Herzog, a former chief of staff for
Israel’s defense minister, told /The Wall Street Journal/ that “Nusra is
a unique version of al-Qaida. They manage to cooperate with non-Islamist
and non-jihadi organizations in one coalition … They are totally focused
on the war in Syria and aren’t focused on us. But when Hizballah and
Iran and others are pushing south, they are very much focused on us.”
Israeli soldiers have also been seen providing Syrian opposition
fighters dominated by al-Nusra with material aid.
Dozens of interactions between Israel and opposition fighters, as far
back as 2012, have been documented
<http://www.un.org/en/peacekeeping/missions/undof/reports.shtml> by the
UN Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF), the peacekeeping mission
responsible for monitoring the 1974 ceasefire line between Israeli and
Syrian forces in the Golan Heights.
The UN has good reason to observe these interactions closely.
In August last year, al-Nusra detained
<http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/09/11/us-syria-crisis-fiji-idUSKBN0H60C120140911>
43 UN peacekeepers and seized their equipment, prompting the UN to
evacuate many of its soldiers to the Israeli-occupied side of the
ceasefire line.
Quarterly UNDOF reports since the pullback reveal an ongoing pattern of
Israeli coordination with those armed groups.
According to the December 2014 report
<http://www.securitycouncilreport.org/atf/cf/%7B65BFCF9B-6D27-4E9C-8CD3-CF6E4FF96FF9%7D/s_2014_859.pdf>,
UNDOF observed two Israeli soldiers “opening the technical fence gate
and letting two individuals pass from the [Syrian] to the [Israeli]
side” on 27 October. Unlike most fighters seen entering the Israeli
side, these individuals were not wounded and the purpose of their visit
remains a mystery.
UNDOF “sporadically observed armed members of the opposition
interacting” with the Israeli military across the ceasefire line, the
report states.
The next UNDOF report, released in March, notes
<http://www.securitycouncilreport.org/atf/cf/%7B65BFCF9B-6D27-4E9C-8CD3-CF6E4FF96FF9%7D/s_2015_177.pdf>
that UN forces witnessed Israeli soldiers delivering material aid to
armed Syrian opposition groups.
“During the evening of 20 January, in the area north of observation post
54, UNDOF observed two trucks crossing from the [Syrian] side to the
[Israeli] side, where they were received by IDF [Israeli military]
personnel,” the report states. “The trucks were loaded with sacks before
returning to the [Syrian] side.”
The coordination between Israel and armed opposition groups continued
into May, according to the June UNDOF report
<http://www.un.org/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=S/2015/405>.
Israel appears determined to keep the nature of these interactions as
low key as possible, something Sidqi Maqt, a Druze resident of the Golan
Heights, understands better than most.
In February, Maqt was arrested
<http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/04/curious-case-israel-al-nusra-facebook-spy-150420082913157.html>
by Israeli intelligence for posting photos and videos to his Facebook
page of Israeli army interactions with armed opposition groups. Maqt
paid particular attention to documenting encounters he believed
demonstrated the Israeli army’s alliance with al-Nusra.
Released in 2012 after serving 37 years in prison for engaging in armed
resistance against Israel’s occupation of the Golan Heights, Maqt is
once again behind bars. He has been charged with “espionage, assisting
an enemy during wartime and contact with a foreign agent,” according to
Al Jazeera.
On top of providing al-Nusra with material aid and punishing those who
expose it, Israel has launched airstrikes almost exclusively against
forces fighting al-Nusra.
On 18 January, for example, an Israeli air strike on a convoy near
Quneitra killed
<http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2015/1/24/hezbollah-seeks-revenge-not-war-over-israel.html>
six members of Hizballah and a general in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.
Days later, rockets landed in the Golan Heights, according to UNDOF. The
Israeli army retaliated by shelling a location it said was the source of
the fire.
A Syrian army official, however, told the UN that “terrorists” had fired
the rockets and that the Syrian army planned to target their positions.
The UN relayed this message to the Israeli army, which responded with
airstrikes against two Syrian army artillery positions.
Bashar al-Assad <https://electronicintifada.net/tags/bashar-al-assad>,
the Syrian president, has said that some in Syria joke
<https://www.foreignaffairs.com/interviews/2015-01-25/syrias-president-speaks>,
“How can you say that al-Qaida doesn’t have an air force? They have the
Israeli air force.”
While Assad’s policies, including the bombardments that have devastated
cities and towns forcing millions to flee their homes, have contributed
to the chaos and vacuum that has enabled extremist groups to flourish in
some areas, Israel’s actions on behalf of those groups grant credence to
his claim.
Cheering on ISIS
Amos Yadlin <https://electronicintifada.net/tags/amos-yadlin>, a retired
Israeli general, has offered a candid explanation for Israel’s
partnership with al-Nusra.
“There is no doubt that Hizballah and Iran
<https://electronicintifada.net/tags/iran> are the major threat to
Israel, much more than the radical Sunni Islamists, who are also an
enemy,” he told /The Wall Street Journal/. “Those Sunni elements who
control some two-thirds to 90 percent of the border on the Golan aren’t
attacking Israel. This gives you some basis to think that they
understand who is their real enemy — maybe it isn’t Israel,” he reasoned.
Hizballah, which is aligned with Bashar al-Assad’s regime, has been
fighting al-Nusra in the Golan Heights with Iranian support. Given
Hizballah’s growing capacity and proven willingness to defend against
Israeli aggression, Israel appears to favor al-Qaida on its northern
front and to view the destruction of Syria as an opportunity to
incapacitate Hizballah in southern Lebanon
<https://electronicintifada.net/tags/lebanon> by draining its resources
in Syria.
This does not mean Israel wants Assad to fall. On the contrary, Israel
prefers a region fractured into small sectarian enclaves
<https://www.jacobinmag.com/2015/06/israel-syria-hezbollah-netanyahu/>
that are too busy fighting one another to unite against it. It is for
this reason that Yair Golan, the Israeli army’s deputy chief of staff,
recently celebrated
<http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.659180> the
conditions on Israel’s northern border as “better than ever.”
/The Jerusalem Post’s/ security correspondent, Yossi Melman, has echoed
Golan, depicting
<http://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/Analysis-With-Syria-crumbling-Israels-security-situation-has-never-been-better-404909>
Syria’s descent into chaos and fragmentation as a strategic boost for
Israel.
Gilad Sharon <https://electronicintifada.net/tags/gilad-sharon>, son of
late Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon
<https://electronicintifada.net/tags/ariel-sharon>, has gone even
further by arguing that an ISIS takeover in Syria would offer an opening
for Israel to acquire the Golan Heights permanently.
In the event of an ISIS takeover, Sharon wrote
<http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4656097,00.html> last month,
“There would be no international pressure for Israel to give back the
Golan Heights either — and that’s a very good thing. The Golan will
remain an important part of Israel forever.” He added that Israel could
rely on the West’s so-called anti-ISIS coalition to defeat a victorious
ISIS next door, allowing Israel to bask in its newly annexed territory
without lifting a finger.
Israel would not necessarily “welcome the presence of the Islamic State
lunatics on our border,” Sharon wrote, “but it’s certainly no worse, and
may even be better, than the presence there of Hizballah, which is the
Lebanese proxy of the Iranian regime.”
Naftali Bennett <https://electronicintifada.net/tags/naftali-bennett>,
Israeli education minister and leader of the ultra-nationalist party
Habeyit Hayehudi <https://electronicintifada.net/tags/habeyit-hayehudi>
(Jewish Home), appears to be following Sharon’s advice.
Speaking at the Herzliya conference, a key event in Israel’s political
calendar, this month, Bennett called
<http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4665886,00.html> on Israel to
invoke the threat of ISIS expansion to compel governments around the
world to legitimize its annexation of the Golan Heights.
“Who do they want us to give the Golan to? To Assad? Today, it’s clear
that if we listened to the world we would give up the Golan and ISIS
would be swimming in the Sea of Galilee. Enough with the hypocrisy,”
said Bennett, agitating for expanding the number of Israeli settlers
<https://electronicintifada.net/tags/settlers> in the Golan from 20,000
to 100,000 in the next five years.
Support for al-Qaida in Syria, then, serves at least two purposes from
Israel’s perspective: sapping the strength of the foe it fears most —
Hizballah — and solidifying its occupation of the Golan Heights.
In addition to sowing chaos and bloodshed, Israel’s machiavellian
schemes — as its decades of meddling in Lebanon show — have a poor
record of achieving their goals.
--
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