Israel's Stepped Up Assault on Syria

The recent acceleration of Israel's attacks on Syria have led to the friendly-fire destruction of a Russian military surveillance plane off the coast of Latakia. Latakia was being bombarded not only by Israeli F-16s but a French frigate as well.

RT has a breakdown of the stepped up Israeli aggression:

Despite the fact that Israel rarely acknowledges striking specific targets inside Syria, earlier this month the IDF admitted hitting at least 202 “Iranian targets” in the country. Overall, Israel has launched 792 bombs and missiles at Syria since 2017, arguing that the strikes were necessary to prevent Iran from setting up bases in the country in order to stage attacks against the Jewish state.

As Israel continues to claim the right to intrude in Syria, despite repeated condemnations from Damascus, France had said that it will join the US-led campaign to strike Syria again if there are reports of chemical weapons use.

Over the last few weeks, Moscow has been beating drums about a false-flag chemical attack that is being prepared by the notorious White Helmets and jihadists in Idlib province in order to frame government forces. Such a provocation, the Russian military argues, will be used to trigger a US-led attack against Damascus.

The attack on Latakia came just hours after Russia and Turkey negotiated a partial demilitarization of Idlib province, which is the last remaining stronghold of anti-government militants, including the Al-Qaeda affiliate Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (also known as the Jabhat Al-Nusra).

Israel response is a cut-and-paste job: Its one-hour bombardment targeted Syrian weapons that were to be transferred to Hezbollah. This has been the identical rationale trotted out over the last four years.

Don't expect an escalation from Moscow. Putin is already ratcheting down tensions.

The Russian strategy appears to be to avoid at all costs getting sucked into direct conflict with Israel or the United States, or France or the United Kingdom, for that matter. The idea must be that the internal contradictions of these states are so enormous eventually they will irrupt and thereby alleviate the pressure on the Russian Federation. The question is whether elites who guide the U.S. empire can focus that irruption on Russia.