Israel On The Warpath

Steven D checks out the major moves Tel Aviv has been up to recently that could signal another Israeli assault on its neighbors:

Last month Syria also accused Israel of pushing the region toward war to which the foreign Minister of Israel responded with threats that Israel would easily defeat the Syrians in any conflict and that the current ruler President Bashar al-Assad would suffer the fate of regime change. Prime Minister Netanhayu later stated that Israel wants peace and not war with Syria, but clearly not everyone in his cabinet is willing to reject bellicose rhetoric against its neighbors.

Certainly that is the view of Hamas leader in exile, Khaled Meshal, which was reported by Yeshiva World News on Monday:

“I don’t see any chance of advancing on the Palestinian, Syria, or Lebanese fronts because the Israeli leadership is one of war, violence and occupation, not one that exhibits a desire for peace”.

The terrorist leader made his statements to the ITAR-TASS News Agency during a visit to Russia. [...]

It should be noted that it was Meshal who was targeted in an assassination attempt during Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s first tenure, about a decade ago. While the Mossad never officially accepted responsibility, the apprehension of two ‘Mossad agents’ in Jordan resulted in a diplomatic row, compelling Netanyahu to send the antidote for the pharmacological agent injected into Meshal, thereby saving his life.

I suppose if I had been the target of assassination attempts for which Israel tacitly admitted responsibility when it provided medical assistance in the form of an antitdote to the poison injected into me, and the same person who led Israel at that time was its leader again, I might have a dim view of Israel's intentions. One thing we do know is that there has been next to no movement on any peace accord between Israel and the Palestinians despite the election of President Obama.

So what's the play here?  Israel has fallen out of the US press for some time now.  The assumption is America now has a GOP President (Scott Brown) and that Obama can't or won't pay any attention to what Israel's doing politically.  Israel is operating on the principle that it has its own destiny to fulfill.  It could be a good cop/bad cop feint towards Iran, as Steven D points out:

This all may be a grand Kabuki show of saber rattling by Iran (for domestic political purposes where the political opposition is once again planning massive street protests) in which the US Government and Israel have chosen to play a role. Their actions certainly fit the pattern of the "stick" in the "carrot and stick" approach to Tehran which the Obama administration has been pursuing under Secretary of State Clinton for some time now.

But the warning signs are getting more and more ominous that the Israel's "dogs of war" may slip the leash of its presumed handler, the US government, and attack one of its neighbors in the near future, if only to show its Middle Eastern neighbors that it remains the predominant military force in the region and can act with impunity regardless of whether a Republican or Democrat occupies the seat in the Oval Office. 

I'm learning towards the latter.  Iran is looking to press the advantage it has and to them Obama is now irrelevant and far too busy to try to waste political capital to stop them.  Look for Israel to make a move soon...particularly with the Feb 13 anniversary of the Iranian Revolution coming up.