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Source: https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/tehran-is-determined-to-use-syria-as-a-springboard-to-hit-israel/
Iran Is Determined to Use Syria as a Springboard to Hit Israel
(Times of Israel) Brig.-Gen. (res.) Yossi Kuperwasser - In recent weeks, Iran has been accelerating its efforts to use Syria to build up its capability to hit targets in Israel, both by its own forces or through supporting its surrogates - Hizbullah and other militias - in Syria and Lebanon. This accelerated after the Americans announced they are going to leave Syria soon. Iran's actions were followed very closely by Israel, which responded by resuming its attacks against Iranian military targets in Syria. Iran tried again to hit targets in Israel with rockets, as it had already done twice last year, but its effort was foiled by Israel. What we should learn from these events is that Iran remains committed to building a military base in Syria from where it can threaten Israel. Iran is not going to give up easily and Israel will have to go on with its policy to deny Iran its goal. Israel can still rely on its intelligence dominance and its military advantage to make it very costly for Iran to make progress on its plan. Russia has a role to play and it can advise the Iranians to stop the military buildup in Syria beyond what is necessary to keep Assad in power. In the eyes of the pragmatic Arab states, Israel's stature as the only country that is ready to stand against Iran militarily keeps growing and should be translated into closer relations with Israel. Israel also serves as a model (for Arab states and Europe) of a regional force that is ready and capable of defending itself by itself based on American support. This is what the U.S. expects from American allies. Brig.-Gen. (res.) Yossi Kuperwasser, former head of the IDF Military Intelligence Research Division, is Director of the Project on Regional Middle East Developments at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs.