By DEBKAFILE— Russian President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Netanyahu ended their three-hour meeting in Sochi Tuesday, May 14, at loggerheads on Syria. In fact, Putin warned his guest that Israel and its army, the IDF, were heading for war with Syria in which Russia might well be involved – and not just through the…
By MICHAL SHMULOVICH, TIMES OF ISRAEL— Iran has convinced Syria to allow Hezbollah to open a “new front” against Israel in the Golan Heights, the London-based Arabic-language newspaper al-Hayat reported Wednesday. Tehran, seeking to prevent the fall of Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government, asked Damascus if Hezbollah could set up a new military front against…
By BARRY RUBIN, GLORIA— Here’s the perfect parable for understanding not just the contemporary Middle East but the wider world today. So far, it’s only being covered in the Finnish media which, I assume, means nobody outside that country knows about it. Two unarmed Finnish soldiers assigned to the United Nations Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO)…
By JONATHAN SCHANZER, FDD POLICY BRIEF— Multiple sources suggest that the winds of war are blowing to Israel’s north, and that such a war could erupt very soon. Lebanese parliamentarian Jean Ogassapian of the Future Bloc issued a warning over the weekend of “dangers of an Israeli strike against Lebanon. There is information that Israel…
By ISRAEL HAYOM— Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Sunday that he sees the fall of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad as imminent, and that this will be a major blow to Israel’s regional archrival, Iran. This is the second time that Barak has commented on the imminent demise of Assad. He first said this only months…
By YITZHAK BENHORIN, YNET-— The White House on Thursday warned Syria not to transfer weapons to Hezbollah, as tensions mounted following reported Israeli raids on a military research center and a weapons convoy. “Syria should not further destabilize the region by transferring weaponry to Hezbollah,” said Ben Rhodes, a US deputy national security advisor. The…
By STEPHEN BRYEN and SHOSHANA BRYEN, GATESTONE— Israeli jets struck something Tuesday night; Wednesday’s guessing game has been, “what was it?” First reports from Western news services said the Israeli Air Force hit a convoy of weapons moving west from Syria toward, or even in Lebanon. A Lebanese army source said nothing was hit there…
By REUTERS— Israeli forces attacked a convoy on the Syrian-Lebanese border on Wednesday, sources told Reuters, after Israelis warned their Lebanese enemy Hezbollah against using chaos in Syria to acquire anti-aircraft missiles or chemical weapons. “The target was a truck loaded with weapons, heading from Syria to Lebanon,” said one Western diplomat, adding that the…
By REUTERS– Israel would use a lot fewer cluster munitions in any future war with Hezbollah than it did in their 2006 conflict, even though it would go into southern Lebanon earlier and harder, a senior Israeli military officer said on Monday. The disclosure confirms Israel already has detailed planning for an offensive aiming to…
By ADAM CREDO, FREE BEACON— The leader of the terror group Hezbollah has vowed to unleash a barrage of missile attacks on Israel, potentially causing “tens of thousands of fatalities” in the Jewish state’s northern region, according to a recently translated interview. Hassan Nasrallah, the terror group’s longtime leader, briefly emerged from hiding late last…