Sinking and firing a desperate Flare into the Sky

You got to feel sorry for this guy David Makovsky. Every time that the Jews of Israel want to say something and maintain the right to deny it if something goes wrong, they call on him. They give him the points on which to expand, and let him develop them in his own style.

In addition, what happens usually is that they give him a point of view through which to expand the discussion, and tell him which audience he is supposed to address on each occasion. However, there are times when they have only a vague story to tell and no specific audience to address and yet, they want him to do something useful with that story. In fact, because Israel has been sinking like a torpedoed ship these days, it finds itself in that kind of predicament more often than not.

And that's precisely what the Israelis gave Makovsky this time. And so, he wrote an article under the title: “Israel Signaling a Heavy Price for Iranian 'Entrenchment' in Syria,” published on February 12, 2018 on the website of the Washington Institute. A caption at the start of the article summarizes what the discussion is about. It says this: “Washington should consider a more active posture that reduces the risks of escalation”.

But going through the article, you find that it does not describe the posture or the risks involved, and it does not say how the risks, whatever they are, can be reduced. The effect on you is that by the time you've read the entire article, you come to the conclusion it is no more than a desperate SOS flare fired into the sky by a sinking ship. The crew hopes that someone will see the flare and come to rescue them.

After fifty years of sucking America's blood like a leech that would not let go, the truth about Israel came out. During all that time, the artificial entity pretending to be a nation, had been using the pretext of defending America, the Western world and civilization, but in the end proved to have been an insult to America, to the Western world and to civilization. Israel did all of that by becoming the catalyst that started an arms race in the Middle East. It kept getting more and more advanced weapons from America, an ongoing tragedy that caused the neighbors to match Israel's doings, even surpass it along the way.

And because the pattern has always been that the Jews never knew where to stop when they found themselves on the gravy train, Israel never stopped doing the wrong things even when it became apparent that America's generosity, no matter how lavish it may continue to be, will not be sufficient to bail Israel for ever. And so, the Jews of Israel got Makovsky to send out a flare that says the following:

“Tehran's leaders risk triggering a rapid military escalation. In Israel, leaders have stated that their concern is avoiding Iranian military entrenchment on their doorstep. Netanyahu [fears] Tehran's development of advanced missile production capabilities in Syria and Lebanon or permanent military bases in Syria for its air, sea, and ground forces. At a time when Hezbollah is pointing more than 100,000 rockets at Israel, fears of a joint Lebanon-Syria front are growing”.

What could possibly come out of this? Well, David Makovsky must have thought of this question, which is why he remarked that “Israel seems keen on sending messages to several players.” And so he went about doing just that – addressing the players he thinks the Israelis had in mind. They would be the Assad regime, Iran, the United States and Russia. This is what he said about them:

“Contrary to earlier reports, the air strikes conducted by Israel inside Syria were not aimed at the base from which the drone was launched. Thus, everybody must realize that the strikes were not retaliation but an act of deterrence. The Iranians must understand that the strikes were aimed at them too, not only at Assad. The strikes should convey the message that Israel does not like the idea of Iran developing a military infrastructure close to it in Lebanon or Syria. As to the United States which is retaining 2,000 troops in eastern Syria, the Israeli military wishes to see a wider U.S. effort against Iranian activities in Syria. As to Russia, the Israelis hope that Moscow will see Israel's strikes as a welcome check on Iran's growing influence – which is beginning to rival Russia's influence in that country”.

Will there be a Good Samaritan that's big enough and powerful enough to rescue that sinking ship? Four thousand years of history say this is unlikely to happen.