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 BOAZ BISMUTH, ISRAEL HAYOM— You can’t say this came as a surprise. From the moment that the uprising in Syria started in Daraa in mid-March 2011, Israel was concerned. We knew that the situation in Syria was difficult and complex. There are no angels on either side of the conflict there. We also knew…
by TIMES OF ISRAEL— Israel conducted an air defense drill on Monday, simulating a possible attack on the country by Syrian and Iranian long-range missiles. The exercise, overseen by Defense Minister Ehud Barak and performed in conjunction with the United States, saw the successful test launch of four Patriot missiles from central Israel into the…
By YOAV ZITUN, YNETNEWS— IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz visited the Golan Heights on Sunday a day after three Syrian tanks entered the demilitarized buffer zone. Gantz and his entourage were able to see battles between Syrian troops and rebel forces from the other side of the border. On Saturday, the IDF lodged a…
By YAAKOV LAPPIN, GATESTONE— As Israel’s military watches Syrian sovereignty crumble and scores of militant groups form in the resulting vacuum, it is on alert for jihadi terrorist attacks from Syria. The working assumption in Israeli defense circles is that sooner or later, Assad will fall, and Israel will have to deal with whatever will…
By SAMARA GREENBERG, JEWISH POLICY CENTER— According to a report in the German weekly Der Spiegel, the Syrian army in August is believed to have test fired missile systems using empty shells devised for delivering chemical agents. The tests, according to witnesses, took place near Syria’s largest chemical weapons facility, the Safira research center, where…
By REUTERS— Any use of chemical or bacterial weapons by government forces in Syria would trigger a “massive and lightning fast” response from the West, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said on Monday. “We talk about this, in particular with our American and British partners, and follow it closely on a day-to-day basis. “Our response…
By ISRAEL HAYOM— The “dictatorial, evil, and bloodthirsty” Iranian regime must be immediately placed in a position in which it needs to choose between developing nuclear weapons and its own survival, Vice Prime Minister Moshe Ya’alon said on Tuesday at a memorial ceremony in Bulgaria for the victims of last month’s terrorist attack in Burgas.…
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…
By KHALED ABU TOAMEH, GATESTONE— If Muslim fanatics cannot tolerate moderate and secular Muslims, why should they be expected to accept those who belong to other faiths? As all eyes were turned this week toward Sinai, where Muslim fundamentalists killed 16 Egyptian border guards while they were having the Ramadan fast-breaking meal, Christian families were…