By TOVA DVORIN, ARUTZ 7— Yair Golan, the Major General of the Northern Command, has warned the world at large that Israel’s situation with Lebanon is extremely volatile. “The situation on the border is explosive and the smallest spark can cause a border clash – even if neither side is looking to engage in fighting,”…
By CAROLINE GLICK, JPOST— Just before Russian President Vladimir Putin orchestrated Russia’s takeover of Crimea, the US’s Broadcasting Board of Governors that controls Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty announced that it will be ending its broadcast to Iraq and the Balkans next year. And this makes sense. As far as the Obama administration is…
By ISABEL KERSHNER, NY TIMES— Two brothers, ages 10 and 8, were playing marbles outside their home in a town in Syria when a rocket decapitated the older one and critically wounded his sibling. Having rushed the surviving child to a local hospital, the mother recalled, medics told her: “If you want to save your…
By CAROLINE GLICK, JPOST— A week and a half ago, Syria’s Kurds announced they are setting up an autonomous region in northeastern Syria. The announcement came after the Kurds wrested control over a chain of towns from al Qaida in the ever metastasizing Syrian civil war. The Kurds’ announcement enraged their nominal Sunni allies —…
By ARIEL BEN SOLOMON, JPOST— Israel conducted air raids against a Syrian missile base near the port city of Latakia early on Thursday, according to an anonymous US administration official. The official, speaking to CNN, said Israel targeted missiles and related equipment out of concern that they would be transferred to Hezbollah. It is unclear…
By ARIEL BEN SOLOMON, REUTERS— Almost half of Syrian rebel fighters are jihadists or hardline Islamists, according to a new report by London intelligence and defense consultancy IHS Janes. On Sunday, Britain’s Telegraph newspaper cited the report as putting the number of opposition forces at 100,000, broken up into around 1,000 groups. The study said…
By DEBKAFILE— Russian President Vladimir Putin, while engaged in active cooperation with President Barack Obama over Syria, was not averse to going over his head to push his agenda with “the American people” in an article he published in The New York Times Thursday, Sept. 12. He continues to protest against all the evidence that…
By ISRAEL HAYOM— Ever since U.S. President Barack Obama surprised the world by seeking congressional approval for a military strike on Syria, concerns have grown among Israeli government officials in Jerusalem about a decline of America’s status in the Middle East and the implications for Iran’s nuclear program. No Israeli spokesperson has made an official…
By AARON KLEIN, WND— Is the reported willingness of Arab Gulf states to fund a U.S. military campaign in Syria really about major oil and gas interests that run through the country? The potential for trillions of dollars of energy revenue in deals that snake through Syrian territory may be a motivating factor for the…
By DEBKAFILE— US president Barack Obama went against the words of his advisers, Secretary of State John Kerry and National Security Adviser Susan Rice Monday, and offered in TV interviews early Tuesday, Sept. 10, to “absolutely” put on hold military action against Syria, as well as the vote in Congress, if Bashar Assad abandoned chemical…