Syrian Revolution

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Revenge and retaliation are not the same thing.

Blathering a lot, aren't you?

I'm often critical of Israel, but I do recognize that they have every right to defend themselves from terrorist attacks. Stop the terrorist attacks and I'll go back to being very critical of Israel because of their unwarranted attack on the USS Liberty.

As for the bombings in Syria, the real question for me is whether they are endeavoring to limit the impact to civilians. In my limited reading about it, I haven't read about any civilians being hit at all by the strikes. The strikes are reportedly all against military sites, not homes and farms.

Israel has every right to fight back against those who attack them. They have no obligation whatsoever to just sit back and take it. When terrorists attack them and rape, torture, and murder their women and children, you had better believe that they have every right to put a stop to such attacks.

Of course, that is in relation to Hamas.

In Syria, they have a vested interest in making sure that terrorists don't get access to materials that can be used to attack them.

Translation:

(Sacrasm) Golani asked a lady to cover her hair because he's too caring for her not to catch cold from rain.

To some of us, words have meanings.

To others, words are merely tokens that they can use indiscriminately to support their point even if the words don't support their point.

Based on your word games you fall into the latter, not the former.

Based on your word games you fall into the latter, not the former.

The leader of the Syrian Islamist rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), who spearheaded the overthrow of the Bashar al-Assad regime, spoke Saturday about Israel for the first time since taking over the country.

In an interview with the Syrian TV news channel, Ahmad al-Sharaa, who is better known by his nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Julani, said that Israel has “no more excuses” to carry out airstrikes in Syria, and that recent IDF attacks on Syrian soil have crossed red lines and threaten an unjustified escalation in the region.

The rebel leader called on the international community to assume its responsibility to avoid an escalation and guarantee the respecting of Syrian sovereignty. Without directly mentioning Israel, he further spoke of “diplomatic solutions” as the only way to ensure security and stability and as a preferable option to “ill-considered military adventures.”

In his interview on Saturday, the new leader in Damascus appeared to indirectly respond to Israeli concerns and provide reassurance. Sharaa said that Syria is exhausted by years of civil war and that at this stage it will not be dragged into conflicts that may lead to further destruction, with reconstruction and stability the main priorities.

The rebel commander added that the Iranian entrenchment in Syria had posed a great danger to Syria itself, to neighboring countries and the Gulf, and said: “We were able to end the Iranian presence in Syria, but we are not enemies of the Iranian people.”

Over the course of a wide-ranging interview, Sharaa mentioned some of the issues that his new government will soon need to address in managing post-war Syria. He stressed the importance of abandoning the “revolutionary mentality” that propelled the rebels, and the need to establish modern institutions, guarantee the rule of law and respect the rights of all Syrians.

Sharaa delivered a scathing critique of the corrupt Assad regime, saying that it managed Syria like a “farm,” extracting and appropriating its resources to enrich itself. He added that in the upcoming period, documents will be published to prove the extent of the regime’s “enormous theft.”

The Israeli government unanimously approved Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's NIS 40 million plan to encourage demographic growth in the Golan Heights, the Prime Minister's Office announced on Sunday.

Netanyahu has expressed a desire to double the population of the Golan after Israel's north suffered over a year of devastation due to the war.

Currently, over 100,000 people have been displaced along the northern border, and the potential for a new conflict with Syria after Assad's fall has made many concerned that their return home would be delayed.

However, the plan aims to assist the Golan Regional Council in absorbing new residents who will arrive on top of those who will be returning.

A visit to the Hermon
Days before this decision, Netanyahu and Defense Minister Katz traveled to the Golan to see the Syrian Hermon, which was recently taken by the IDF, marking the first Israeli presence in the land in over 50 years.

I'm not the one claiming that every little mean thing is terrorism.

Ousted Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad planned to keep fighting rebel forces in the country before Russia evacuated him, according to a statement attributed to him released Monday.

“My departure from Syria was neither planned nor did it occur during the final hours of the battles,” Assad, 59, said on his Telegram account.

Assad said he remained in Damascus until the early hours of Dec. 8 — the day the rebels entered Syria’s capital.

Assad said that as rebel forces swept through the city, he moved north to Lattakia in coordination with Russian allies "to oversee combat operations." It was at the nearby Hmeimim air base when "it became clear that our forces had completely withdrawn from all battle lines and that the last army positions had fallen."

Assad said that with no viable means of leaving the base, which he said had come under intensified drone strikes, Moscow requested an immediate evacuation to Russia that evening.

"This took place a day after the fall of Damascus," he said. NBC News was not able to independently verify his account of events.

Assad maintained that prior to that point, he had not considered "stepping down or seeking refuge."

Assad was trying to convey that he had no intention of escaping the country, according to Burcu Ozcelik, a senior research fellow at the London-based think tank Royal United Services Institute.

“It was a sort of sudden escape given the ‘terrorist offensive,’ as he calls it and as he has always called it, branding the opposition, any opposition, whether it's (Hayat Tahrir al-Sham) or not as terrorist factions enforced by external influences,” she said.

Heavy Israeli airstrikes were reported in Syria’s coastal Tartus region overnight Sunday-Monday, allegedly targeting military sites, in the latest such raids since rebels brought down Bashar al-Assad’s regime last week.

The attacks were reported by local media and several monitors, with some footage distributed on social media showing explosions, ostensibly from the bombings.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said early Monday that Israel Defense Forces jets had targeted a series of sites, including air defense units and surface-to-surface missile depots, calling the campaign “the heaviest strikes in Syria’s coastal region since the start of strikes in 2012.”

The Israeli military did not immediately comment, and the SOHR report could not be independently verified.

The US army killed 12 ISIS terrorists in Syria via precision strikes, the US Central Command (CENTCOM) reported on Monday evening.

The strikes against ISIS leaders, operatives, and camps were carried out as part of ongoing attempts to "disrupt, degrade, and defeat ISIS, preventing the terrorist group from conducting external operations and to ensure that ISIS does not seek opportunities to reconstitute in central Syria."

The strikes, which occurred on Monday, took place in former Regime and Russian-controlled areas, which CENTCOM said ensured pressure continues to be maintained on ISIS.

CENTCOM added that there were no civilian casualties.

Preventing ISIS resurgence
“CENTCOM, working with allies and partners in the region, will not allow ISIS to reconstitute and take advantage of the current situation in Syria,” said Gen. Michael Erik Kurilla.

I wonder how long it will take for Israeli settlers to colonise the buffer zone.