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Israel's Game Plan with Hizbullah and Syria

(Al Arabiya) Joyce Karam - For 29 years, Israel did not once directly strike Syria outside the Arab-Israeli war of 1973. Now Israel has launched more than five strikes in the last two years, and one on the Lebanese border this week targeting a Hizbullah weapons transfer. According to Jeffrey White, a defense fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, "part of the policy and the red line they (Israel) have established is they will not allow Hizbullah to acquire sophisticated weapons from Syria or from Iran through Syria." The deep involvement of Hizbullah in the fighting in Syria has heightened Israeli and U.S. concerns about the risk of the Assad regime passing sophisticated weapons to the Lebanese group. The frequency in Israel's strikes is a product of "a larger capability for Israel to operate with reduced risk against Syria or Hizbullah, and hence a greater ability to act," says White. Both Assad and Hizbullah have promised to respond, but "fighting on two fronts at the same time is not on the table," given a "constrained Hizbullah" and a degraded Syrian army. The writer is the Washington correspondent for Al-Hayat (London).
2014-02-28 00:00:00
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