Russian Intervention in Syria Signals A Big Fight

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                       

                       Russian warships gather in the Mediterranean

Russia is sending several ships that will arrive in a few days in the Mediterranean to protect their interests in Syria.  Two Russian warships and a missile cruiser are coming to strengthen their fleet.  Russia is one of the big FIVE who would not vote for an  intervention attack against Syria since they are Syria's main backer.

In the meantime, talk is discussing back and forth about  a date for the USA to punish Assad and tell him he can't use chemicals while Britain has had second thoughts and is still bantering the matter in their parliament.  Actually, so is the USA, but Obama has already spoken and has said that the USA would take action even without the backing of allies or the UN.  What he had chastised Bush about, he  is now facing a very similar situation.

Obama has meetings in Sweden and Russia to attend.  He's leaving on Tuesday, so it is thought that something might happen before then.  Are we going to hit and then have our Commander in Chief leave when all fireworks can start?

If anyone attacks Syria, their promise is to attack Israel, who is prepared for that.  They of course will immediately answer an attack, and they have been trying to stay out of the Syrian devastation.   Syria's Civil War has been so close that some missiles had even landed in The Golan, which looks down on Syria.  When you live among lions, it's difficult at best to get into the middle of a roaring and fighting  pride.   Assad has threatened Israel with a deadly attack  from Lebanon, Iraq, Iran and what is left of their military and a surprise element of devastation.  What?  Atomic rockets from Iran?  More chemicals, no doubt.  Meanwhile, Assad has had time to leave Damascus and is safely hid out in Iran.

Israel is ready with gas masks for any surprise in Assad's retaliation against their tiny nation.  Psalms 108: 13-14 says it all.  "Give us help against the adversary:  for vain is the help of man.  Through G-d we shall do valiantly:  for He it is that will tread down our adversaries."   Israeli's warriors know they cannot run and hide anywhere.  They have nowhere to go.  This is a fight of the likes of the 300 Spartans,  only Israel feels they have help from their outer space guardian.

Thousands of Syrians have already fled to nearby Lebanon to get out of the way of the West's attack.  Not only did they have to worry about a crazed government with chemicals to use on them willy nilly, but now the West's answer to this use of chemicals which is not in the book of allowed war weapons.  The signal these people had of their eventual fate was in how their government treated the Jewish population in their country.  Confined on "Jew Street" and held as captives in a worse condition of any of the other dhimmis of the Middle East, the last remaining ones  were finally rescued by Israel in 1994.  As a country treats its Jewish population, so will the rest eventually wind up as the next scapegoat.  The Christians of Egypt have found that out already with the Muslim Brotherhood's first reprisal being their churches and people.

The Mediterranean will be full of Israeli, American, and Russian ships ready to fire missiles somewhere.  The British might be in the mix as well. At this point, the USA is not sure what the target is to be as the Syrians have been busy moving their arms to high ground surrounding Damascus.

Starting September 4th in the evening and going on into September 5th is the Birthday of the World, Rosh Hashanna, the start of a 10 day period of Jewish High Holidays ending with Yom Kippur, a day they were attacked on October 6, 1973 when everyone was in a synagogue asking for forgiveness from G-d of any sins they might be guilty of.  It is a day of fasting and is the most serious day of the year.  Unfortunately, the whole beginning of this  New Year is now colored with threats from a neighbor of all their lives once again.

On the sidelines of this stage are many Middle Easterners who are chomping on their bits at the thought of taking over Jerusalem.  I say that G-d has been on Israel's side through thick and thin for 65 years since May 14, 1948.  Israelis have been threatened when the odds were completely against them.  What makes the haters of Zionism  think that G-d's protection and direction has evaporated?  It is even miraculous that as a people Jews have continued to exist from the days when Judah, 4th son of  Jacob  and Leah, was born.  King David was from this tribe.  Of all the ancient people, it is only the Jews who have been able to survive, even with Hitler's determination to do Jews in.  The creation of their state once again has been prophesied to the amazement of all people. Just look into the "Old Testament.,"  It takes a lot more than plain luck to live that long in  a world  constantly against them.

Resource:  http://www.breakingisraelnews.com/israel-continues-to-prepare-for-worst-as-russian-warships-set-to-move-in/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=israel-continues-to-prepare-for-worst-as-russian-warships-set-to-move-in
Oregonian newspaper, 8/29/13/ Front page, Evidence, allies slow for strike on Syria, by Deb Riechmann and Kimberly dozier, AP, also page A5

Syria's Chemical Warfare Hits Innocent Syrians

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                       

                                                 No Rose Colored Gas Masks For Syrians

Chemical warfare was first used in WWI. Tear gas, severe mustard gas, phosgene and  chlorine were used.   Then, only 4% of the deaths were from these weapons in the worst war ever. They've all been outlawed.   Saddam Hussein used chemical weapons against the Kurds anyway  in Iraq in the late 1980's. He killed thousands with mustard gas and  nerve agents with arial bombs, 122 mm rockets, and conventional artillery shells.   Nothing is impossible in the Middle East when powers that be want to gain more power, evidently, even the grotesque death of victims gasping for breath or going through trembling gyrations.  This horror is hitting Syria where the shooters are still unconfirmed.  Is it the rebels or the government of Syria doing this dastardly deed, and how many groups make up the rebels and what is their aim?  Some rebels are people that belong to al-Qaida or Hezbollah, terrorist groups.
                                                                               

Israel has had to dispense gas masks to their whole population, now 7 million, several times in order to try to protect them from maniacs who would attack by chemical warfare, something that is outlawed according to the Geneva Convention. My cousin Stanley was in an attack in his home in Jerusalem where everyone had to don their gas masks around 1993.  They feared the worst and again were issued masks in 2010 and 2012.  Bathrooms were to be sealed as a safe room.   Syrians are at the mercy of a government that is against their own populace.  They first destroyed the Jewish community of which the last was able to escape in 1994 when an airlift took them to Tel Aviv, Israel.  They were living in Gestapo-type ghetto-like conditions,  unable to have any civil liberties.  Now it is the few Christians who are in danger.

Syria had 22,505,000 people of which 90% are Muslims, a mixture of Sunni and Shi'a  They have no stated state religion as some states do in the Middle East.  Today Syrians have fled to refugee camps in Jordan, Lebanon and many fled to Egypt under Morsi's short reign, who hoped they were all proponents of the Muslim Brotherhood, and are not even registered refugees receiving UN aid, but are about out of their own funds to help them to survive.  Work there is impossible to find under their present emergency.  The UN would do well to survey that situation.

The USA was aware of chemical warfare being used early this year when they confirmed this knowledge and said they would supply some form of weapons to the rebels, but have since had second thoughts about "rebels."  Rebels could be any of the terrorist groups, Hezbollah or al-Qaida who have immersed themselves into the remaining population.

Israel's intelligence strongly suggested a chemical weapons attack, but the rebels have pointed out where 4 rockets had been fired from that proved that the attack could have been carried out only by the government's forces. Sane people question how that could be when this happened on the day the inspectors had arrived in Damascus to check out previous attacks.  The timing is incredibly idiotic.  Russia thinks the rebels staged the attack, which does sound logical to me as it's so incredible that the government would do it upon the inspector's arrival.  .

The rebels reasoning is that the government is softening up the opposition before a major attack with tanks, armored personnel carriers and planes.

The recent attack happened just after 2:00am.  "Chemically equipped rockets were launched; 2 from a bridge on the highway from Damascus to Homs; others  from a Sironex factor in the Qabun neighborhood of  Damascus.

Now the UN may not be able to send investigators in to collect samples from the wounded and dead.

How will the UN respond to all this?  The USA has combat aircraft, fighters and bombers for an air attack, but what is the target and will civilians be killed?  The targets would be missile or artillery batteries that can launch chemical munitions of nerve gas and communications and support facilities, or on the headquarters and government offices of the government.  These are all bad choices according to a European official.  The USA is also divided over the proper response to use, as it was earlier.

Until the world powers get their act together, someone should go into Syria with gas masks, food and water for civilians not involved.  They are between a rock and a hard place, for sure.

Resource: Oregonian newspaper, 8/23/2013,  headlines: chemical quandary in Syria by Mark Landler, Mark mazzetti and Alissa J. Rubin, NY Times, front page and page A6.
http://www.amazon.com/Israeli-Civilian-Mask-Nato-Filter/dp/B0002XJ2OU
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3855283,00.html
http://academic.regis.edu/jriley/saddam_hussein.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemical_weapons_in_World_War_I

Chemical Attack in Syria Already,: Israel Prepares for Worst

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                  

It seems that terrorism is the only known skill in Syria by everyone who lives there today.  Syria practices state-sponsored terrorism.  It has aided and abetted if not initially produced  Hezbollah, Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine General Command, The Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Abu Musa Organization, and Popular Struggle Front.  The insurgents have been identified by Assad as members of the Muslim Brotherhood.

The northern border of Israel is Syria.  Twice, every citizen of Israel has been issued gas masks due to Syria's known stash of chemical weapons that they have used against their own people.  Being that Syria is in a civil war, the fear is that they will either be used again to gain the upper hand or that these weapons would fall into the hands of terrorists that would use them against Israel.

Brigadier General Itai Brun, the Israeli military intelligence head of their research and analysis, told a security conference in Tel Aviv that President Bashar Assad has already used chemical weapons many times.  He has documented facts of visual evidence from the French and British that it has happened near Damascus only last month.  "CW was used in a Syrian Army attack in Aleppo on March 19. At the time, the Syrian opposition said 31 people were killed by CW munitions."  The report included the fact that the CW was used in a reduced form so as not to create vast casualties.  I doubt if they would do that on an attack on Israel.

In my estimation, Syria has resorted to using these non-conventional weapons because the rebels-insurgents  have been provided for in ways other than weapons by the USA and NATO.  .

Also, John Kerry, US Secretary of State,  urged NATO in Brussels to make ready for this fact on the very day of Brun's conference in Israel.

Now this development will cause pressure on the USA and other Western countries to intervene.  President Obama had said before that using chemical weaponry is a "game changer".  NATO is still saying that the alliance will not intervene in the civil war.

Knowing of the possibility of Israel facing such an attack again, 4.7 million gas masks have been distributed in Israel.  4,000 of them were distributed since January.  They manage to get about 1,400 every week to the population which has grown.  Israel has 6 million Jews and about 1.7 million Arab citizens today.  Christians and others make up the total.

"In the 1980s, Syria acquired chemical warheads for aerial bombardment and for its SS-21 and Scud-B missiles."  "By the end of the decade, Libya also began to produce large quantities of mustard and nerve gas, and acquired Soviet Su-24 long-range bombers."

Then again in 1991 with Saddam Hussein leading, Iraq had threatened with  chemical weapons in the 1991 gulf War.  40 surface to surface missiles were launched at Israel and each one could have had chemicals.  Israelis were educated about defensive actions to take and had sealed rooms in their homes for refuge.

It seems that terrorism is the only known skill in Syria by everyone who lives there.  Syria practices state-sponsored terrorism.  It has aided and abetted if not initially produced  Hezbollah, Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine General Command, The Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Abu Musa Organization, and Popular Struggle Front.  The insurgents have been identified by Assad as members of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Resource:  Oregonian newspaper, 4/24/13 page A4, Urgency rises over chemical weapons
http://www.algemeiner.com/2013/01/30/demand-for-gas-masks-in-israel-rises-as-fears-of-chemical-weapons-falling-into-terrorist-hands-increase/
http://faculty.biu.ac.il/~steing/arms/chem.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrorism_in_Syria
http://www.worldtribune.com/2013/04/24/israeli-intel-chemical-weapons-apparently-sarin-used-by-syria-in-aleppo-attack/

Syria and Israel: Continuous Confrontations Through Time

Nadene Goldfoot

Since April 2011 the Baath Party of President Bashar al-Assad has been in a Civil War with his people and over 60,000 have been killed.  This has been part of the Arab Spring.

Yesterday's report coming out of Israel was that Israeli citizens have been ordering gas masks.  Sighting has been going on in the Syrian village of As-Safira, which is home to one of 5 chemical weapons storage facilities.  There has been warnings from experts that Hizbullah could easily acquire Syria's chemicals  since Syria's hold on their country is deteriorating.  The Israeli government is following events with concern, and yesterday had 12 jets fly to almost as far as Damascus to take out a convoy of missiles that might also contain these chemicals.  4,000 gas masks have been distributed compared to the average of 1,400 per week.  In all, 4.7 million gas masks have been distributed.  The population of Israel is nearly 8 million according to Arutz Sheva.  Israel is only 8,000 square miles big and right up on the border of Syria.

Syria has 22,505,000 people who live on 71,500 square miles of which 90% are Sunni or Shi'a Muslims.  It's almost 9 times larger than Israel.  The name of this country was Aram back in the Bible days.  The kings of Aram didn't succeed in creating a homogeneous state.  The land was made up of many peoples from the vicinity who even would wander into Palestine after 135 CE.  The coastal strip had been settled by the Phoenicians.  The history is recorded in the Bible and also found in Part I and Part II of Kings.  There was ongoing friction and fighting between Israel and Judah with Syria until the 8th century BCE when Syria was overrun by the Assyrians, just as Israel was in 722 BCE.

Jews had been living in Antioch, and were important to the Seleucid era but suffered from the hostile Greeks.  A few Jews remained living in Syria in the Talmudic Period and under Theodosius II in 408-50 CE.  They had restricted religious freedom and many synagogues were converted to churches.

Actually, things got better with the Arab conquest of 634-7 CE when Jews were allowed to be Jewish but were forced to pay a poll-tax, something Muslims did with people not of their faith, and they were called dhminnis.  Benjamin of Tudela wrote about the largest Jewish communities in the 12th century which were at Aleppo with 5,000 Jews.  This is where the action is taking place today. After all this civil war fighting, the city is about completely destroyed.   Also, 3,000 Jews lived in Damascus and there were 2,000 in Palmyra.  Jewish settlements increased after the Spanish Inquisition of 1492 because Jews from Spain and Sicily found refuge there and they were able to work in trading between Europe and Asia.

By 1840, the Damascus Blood Libel was laid on Jews getting attention worldwide.  "In February, at Damascus, a Catholic monk named Father Thomas and his servant disappeared. The accusation of ritual murder was brought against members of the Jewish community of Damascus."  Jews suffered from such things  throughout the ages and never did such things.  In the first place, blood is abhorrent to Jews.  It is not something that can be eaten much less touched.  By 1920 after WWI the French held the mandate for Syria and Jews finally obtained equal rights which were lost in WWII under the Vichy regime.

 Jews then emigrated to the USA or Lebanon and Israel.  From 1943  the Jewish population grew from  almost 30,000  to about 14,000 by1947, and then more left because of the fighting against Israel.  There have still been Jews living today in Damascus.  By 1973 there were 4,000.  Syria remains anti-Israel with their policies and continued acts of hostility since 1948 when they joined other countries to fight against Israel.  It was Syria who was so extreme and wanted the 6 Day War.  That again turned out that Israel won the battle, defeated the Syrian army and occupied the Golan Heights where Syrians had been bombarding Israel homes and businesses.  Today there are 22 Jews living in Damascus.  I imagine they are quite old.  That's what is left of the Syrian Jewish population.

In; 1982 when I lived in Safed, Israel, our IDF had to enter Lebanon as the Palestinian terrorists were shelling constantly.  I lived very close to the border and remember seeing our convoy of trucks go up Safed's hill when I was going down in a bus.  Our friend, the Christian Major Hadad of Lebanon patrolled the border with us.  He took his R&;R in our army hospital where I wound up.  Hadad asked Sharon for permission to go into the Palestinian camps and take care of them and Sharon agreed.  It did not have a good outcome.  It was evidently some type of slaughter and Sharon had to take responsibility.  This is when Hezbollah was created.

Hezbollah are terrorists who are followers of the Iranian Ayatollah Khomeini.  They are trained by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards.  They are funded by Iran and Syria.  These are the people we must keep chemicals from reaching as they will use them on Israel.  They are right when they stated that " the strike aimed to prevent Arab and Muslim forces from developing their military capabilities"  Who in their right mind is going to allow them to be able to gas people as well as  shoot missiles into Israel?  Knesset member Tzachi Hanegbi didn't  admit that Israel  hit the convoy, but said "Israel's preference would be if a Western entity would control these weapons systems,"  As I understand, 12 jets flew over to do the job.  Syria says they hit a scientific research center NW of Damascus and 10 miles from Lebanon's border.  Somehow that center looked an awful lot like a convoy of trucks carrying anti-aircraft weapons meant to use on Israel.

Resource:  Arutz Sheva news@israelinationalnews.com
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hezbollah
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/01/31/lebanon-hezbollah-condemns-israeli-airstrike-on-syria/
http://www.nationsencyclopedia.com/economies/Asia-and-the-Pacific/Syria.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syrian_Jews
http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-arts-and-culture/109884/jewish-aleppo-lost-forever
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syrian_civil_war