WhatsappIsrael pounded Syria over night in what is being described as four successive waves of airstrikes against the Iranian ally.
Reports from Syria over night suggest that Israel carried four different airstrikes in Hama, Homs, Tartus and Damascus killing five and injuring 19. The biggest damage was reported in Masyaf, the location a “scientific research institute” connected to the IRGC.
This morning Hezbollah retaliated by sending a barrage of UAVs and missiles at Northern Israel. It is being reported that one of the UAVs made a direct hit on an apartment in the Northern city of Nahariya.
The IDF stated the following about the incident: “Following the sirens that sounded in the area of the Western Galilee regarding a hostile aircraft infiltration, two suspicious aerial targets were identified crossing from Lebanon into Israeli territory. One of the aerial targets fell in the area of Nahariya. No injuries were reported.”
Today’s volley follows a massive barrage from Lebanon two nights ago at Kiryat Shmona and the communities that surround it.
While everyone has been focusing on Hamas and Gaza since the terror organization executed six Jewish hostages, the IDF and Hezbollah are heading fast towards a wider conflict that has the potential to turn regional.
In fact Likud MK Nissim Vaturi and member of the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, claimed early Monday morning that it is “a matter of days” before full-on war erupts between Israel and Hezbollah. While last night does not seem to be a casus belli, what is clear is that Israel’s need to shift the focus out of Gaza is becoming clear.
Since the beginning of the multi-front war, global focus has been on Gaza and although much of the war has switched to pinpoint urban campaigns instead of a massive ground war, there is external and internal pressure for some sort of imaginary ceasefire. Any real ceasefire is illusory as it is not about stopping the war, which is essentially has already switched into a low flame conflict, but rather designed to force the IDF out of Gaza.
The government and the security echelon do not agree on everything, but what is clear is that they agree on a long term or perhaps permanent presence in Gaza along the Philadelphi Corridor, Neitzarim Corridor, and a three kilometer buffer zone around the entire strip. All of this is consensus and no matter who is running the show that is what will remain in Israel’s hands at the end of the day. The only difference is how the State of Israel gets there. The Prime Minister and his supporters want these areas to be at their widest points and that is why the IDF is fast shaping the contours of where the civilian populace - the one’s that are still in Gaza can live.
Now that Gaza has been turned into the equivalent of Jenin and Tulkarm in Samaria, all eyes are really on Lebanon. While in the past few months there have been some “false” starts to the great northern war, CENTCOM commander General Michael Erik Kurilla arrived in Israel and held a situational assessment with IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi. Reports indicate that General Kurilla was presented with an actual operational plan of the coming IDF attack on Hezbollah.
Does this mean an expanded war is finally upon us? Perhaps not tomorrow, but in reality at any moment the current Middle Eastern conflict can turn into a regional war. With Egypt and Turkey actively working against Israel and the US backed Kurds, this puts them far more into bed with Iran than belonging to the US led allies like NATO or CENTCOM. Given these developments, its not by accident that CENTCOM is at odds with the US administration.
However, adversarial the current Biden administration is with Israel, CENTCOM is not. The Pentagon sees that the same enemies that are pushing against US interests in Ukraine are looking to not only take down Israel, but the moderate Sunni states that America needs to hold onto to its hegemony in the region.
Presidents come and go, but the US military and those in the broader US national defense understand that in many ways the West is already in the beginning phases of WW3 and America needs a strong Israel to push back on the Iranian part of the Axis of Evil (Russia, China, Iran, North Korea). The coming regional war is part of the broader early phases of America’s counter punch against its global adversaries. While Russian propaganda has tried to blame the “zionists” as the root cause of America’s foreign entanglements, the joint Chinese and Russian drive to take down the West is real.
Western Europe may be in free fall, but Eastern Europe - especially those belonging to the Visegrad Group (Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia) and Austria, Ukraine, and Italy see a natural alignment with Israel as well as Greece and Cyprus. Ukraine and Israel are already on the frontlines of WW3. If successful, CENTCOM’s strategy means the Axis will be contained - if not, the hot war will expand.
This is why CENTCOM is running the show now. This is no longer only Israel’s war.
