It’s quite funny in the utmost sarcastic sense how little the generalist press or TV or media in general can link events together.
For instance, when Israeli jets bombed around the Syrian capital of Damascus yesterday all were focusing on human victims; very few got it that the aim of the exercise and concentrated on how many Hezbollah fighters had been killed. Truth is, and just about only the Christian Science Monitor caught on : http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Security-Watch/terrorism-security/2014/1208/Syria-Iran-accuse-Israel-of-air-strike-arms-for-Hezbollah-are-likely-target , the objective was destroying new weapons shipped from Iran which succeeded and successively successfully incapacitated many more Hezbollah fighters than the handful ( at best ) reported.
Below that on the radar was this : http://www.timesofisrael.com/un-israel-interacting-with-rebels-on-syrian-border/ about how Israeli forces interact with Syrian rebels over the common border. Let me tell you how it goes.
Within reason, Israel takes care of the refugees ( read civilians ) in exceptional fashion. The Jewish hospitals are ranked top in the World wherever they exist so strike ( pun intended ) one for the Israelis.
The border is quite safe, thank you very much and if your death wish goes beyond simple jihad to pass go without collecting you virgins directly to paradise, try them Tsahal boyz’n galz, they’ll fix you up real nice!
What Jerusalem does is map sure the problem happens further out by helping the rebels with all its might. You can bet that there are as many Israeli “military advisors” in Syria as there are Russian ones in Ukraine right now. Except that they are helping beyond combat. They’re helping in every facet of life to make sure that the local people ( who are after all only rebels to Assad but still lawful Syrians as far as Israel is concerned ) can re-establish a semblance of civil life for themselves, a community rebuilding to Iraq 2003 plus’ civilization one. That is a perfect – and thus quite Jewish – bet!
The zone stays calmer. The border stays safer. The locals learn that Israel is not their enemy. That will be gained regardless of the outcome in the Syrian mess. It pushes back the problems there in both time and space. The only cost to that strategy being that once in while you have to limit the means of the opposing force ( in this case the Hezbollah which Israel hates as dearly as it distrusts its master Iran ) by tactical action ( and no collateral damage unless Syria builds daycare centers over ammunition depots ). That is what happened in those strikes.*
All of which has a philosophico-Adamsian** side, namely :
If I was a Syrian of the area or anyone out of the land itself for that matter save those pesky Iranians, I’d readily rely on the good heart of Jews in case of need or crisis. It is a fact but to neo-nazis with the mental wingspread mental of a sparrow to their idols’ trademark eagle that Jews are great organizers, having filled the role in all lands they lived in whether allowed or not 😉 . More striking than the F-15 I’s bombs though are the philosophical implications. Virtually the only people in the world that have not benefitted from the Israeli ( and actually lost a lot to them ) are the Palestinians, the closest by. Is it proximity? Are the Jews exceptional acquaintances, great buddies, good neighbors but horrible roommates and hellish family members? If so, how classically human of them but in addition, how ironic. The only mess of the great organizers is their own; that close to the heart, affects take over; doctors can’t cure themselves and shoemakers are the worst shod. Again, how very human of them!
The demons we succumb to are always our own. Any outsider would draw a fixed map of the Holy Land in 15 seconds flat
Makes me wonder if maybe the reason why both themselves and the others want them apart in a special class is not simply that they are TOO exemplary of human frailties … and not exempt of?
Just sayin’, peace out, Tay.
* On the fun front, it produced great images of Russian SAM surface to air missiles chasing each other after the target had run ahead. 😀
** Douglas. Adamsian as in Douglas Adams.
Definitive Lapse of Reason 