The threat of advanced weapons reaching terrorists fighting in Syria remains, but there’s at least one nation doing something about it: Israel. For what is believed to be the seventh time during the Syrian civil war, Israel bombed a cache of weapons likely destined for Hezbollah terrorists in Lebanon.
The latest attack, according to Time Magazine, targeted missiles capable of carrying larger warheads than any other missiles owned by Hezbollah. Considering the fact that Hezbollah has tens of thousands of missiles, these bigger ones must have been a change from normal.
And it is a refusal to allow change to the normal that is Israel’s approach to Syrian weapons being transferred to Hezbollah, according to Time and The Daily Star. Thankfully, it doesn’t look like Hezbollah has the energy to respond.
The Daily Star pointed out that Hezbollah, already bogged down in the Syrian civil war helping the regime and threatened at home by terrorists fighting the regime, can’t afford a real fight with Israel. So they’re keeping quiet, even though the latest incident was apparently close enough to the border that it wasn’t clear if it hit in Syria or Lebanon.
The Daily Star highlighted a denial from Hezbollah’s TV station Al-Manar that the reported Israeli attack occurred in Lebanon. Furthermore, The Daily Star even noted that Hezbollah controls the area where the attack occurred, and therefore could even hide the location of the attack.
If the bombing was in fact in Lebanon, Hezbollah might feel pressured to retaliate, so by not revealing the location Hezbollah avoids such pressure.
Of course, all this doesn’t erase the fact that Syria was apparently trying to upgrade the weapons of a terrorist organization. Or that Israel was the only nation to stop them.
Considering the real risk that Syrian missiles or even chemical weapons could reach terrorists, Israel is doing all of us a favor.
(By Joshua Spurlock, www.themideastupdate.com, February 25, 2014)