Former Israeli Defense Minister
Confirms Israeli Collaboration With ISIS In
Syria
By Richard Silverstein
April 23,
2017 "Information
Clearing House"
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In the midst of complaining about
the Islamist threat to Israel and the world,
Bibi Netanyahu conveniently forgets that his own
country enjoys a
tacit alliance with ISIS in
Syria. It is an alliance of convenience to be
sure and one that’s not boasted about by either
party. But is not terribly different from one
than Israel enjoys with its other Muslim allies
like Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States.
Bogie Yaalon served as defence
minister in the current government till he had a
falling out with Netanyahu. Now Yaalon plans to
form his own party and run against his former
boss. Unfortunately for him, he’s not polling
well and doesn’t appear to be much of a
political threat.
So
Yaalon enjoys the position of having little to
lose. He can speak more candidly than the
average politician. In this context, he spoke
at length on
security matters at a public event in Afula.
There is always much that I disagree with
whenever I read Yaalon’s views. For example,
while warning about the danger of favoring too
heavily one side over the other, he essentially
justifies Israel’s interventionist approach,
which largely has favored Assad’s opponents.
Nor do I like his choice of political
allies–from Pam
Geller to Meir
Kahane’s grandson.
But he did reveal how closely
tied Israel is to ISIS in Syria. I’ve
documented, along with other journalists,
Israeli collaboration with al-Nusra, an
affiliate of al-Qaeda. But no Israeli till now
has admitted it has forged an alliance with ISIS
as well. Below Yaalon implicitly confirms this
below:
…Within Syria there are many factions: the
regime, Iran, the Russians, and even
al-Qaeda and ISIS. In such circumstances,
one must develop a responsible,
carefully-balanced policy by which you
protect your own interests on the one hand,
and on the other hand you don’t intervene.
Because if Israel does intervene on behalf
of one side, it will serve the interests of
the other; which is why we’ve established
red lines. Anyone who violates our
sovereignty will immediately feel the full
weight of our power. On most occasions,
firing comes from regions under the control
of the regime. But once the firing came
from ISIS positions–and it immediately
apologized.
The attack he refers to was never
reported in Israeli media. Either the
information was placed under gag order or under
military censorship. It was suppressed most
certainly because both the firing by an Israeli
Islamist ally on Israeli territory and
ISIS’ apology would embarrass both Israel and
the Islamists.
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Keep in mind, this is the same
ISIS which beheaded a Jewish-American who’d
lived in Israel: Steven Sotloff. The same ISIS
which raped Yazidi women and threw gay men off
buildings. The same ISIS which has rampaged
through the Middle East sowing havoc and rivers
of blood wherever it goes. The same ISIS which
Netanyahu routinely excoriates as being the root
of all evil in the world.
It’s common knowledge that
Israeli foreign policy going back to the days of
Ben Gurion has been exceedingly opportunistic
and amoral. So I suppose one shouldn’t be
surprised at this new development. But still it
does momentarily take one’s breath away to
contemplate just how sleazy Israel’s motives can
be.
Tikun Olam (Hebrew: תיקון עולם tikkun olam,
"repairing the world") is a Seattle-based
political blog that regularly reports on Israeli
security matters. The blog was created in 2003
by Richard Silverstein and covers the
Arab–Israeli conflict. Silverstein describes it
as a "liberal Jewish blog" that "focuses on
exposing the excesses of the Israeli national
security state".
This article was first published by
Tikun Olam.
The
views expressed in this article are solely those
of the author and do not necessarily reflect the
opinions of Information Clearing House.
See
also
ISIS/Al-qaeda
airforce:
Israel
attack kills 3 pro-government forces in Syria;
: Three members of the pro-government NDF were
reportedly killed while two were wounded; an
unnamed militia official was quoted as saying by
news agency AFP.
