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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsAl-Qaeda, Saudi Arabia and Israel
http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/28434-focus-al-qaeda-saudi-arabia-and-israelThe behind-the-scenes Israeli-Saudi alliance has put the two governments uncomfortably at times on the side of Sunni jihadists battling Shiite influence in Syria, Lebanon and even Iraq. On Jan. 18, 2015, for instance, Israel attacked Lebanese-Iranian advisers assisting Assads government in Syria, killing several members of Hezbollah and an Iranian general. These military advisors were engaged in operations against al-Qaedas Nusra Front.
Meanwhile, Israel has refrained from attacking Nusra Front militants who have seized Syrian territory near the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. One source familiar with U.S. intelligence information on Syria told me that Israel has a non-aggression pact with these Nusra forces.
Israels odd-couple alliances with Sunni interests have evolved over the past several years, as Israel and Saudi Arabia emerged as strange bedfellows in the geopolitical struggle against Shiite-ruled Iran and its allies in Iraq, Syria and southern Lebanon. In Syria, for instance, senior Israelis have made clear they would prefer Sunni extremists to prevail in the civil war rather than Assad, who is an Alawite, a branch of Shiite Islam.
In September 2013, Israels Ambassador to the United States Michael Oren, then a close adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, told the Jerusalem Post that Israel favored the Sunni extremists over Assad.
The greatest danger to Israel is by the strategic arc that extends from Tehran, to Damascus to Beirut. And we saw the Assad regime as the keystone in that arc, Oren told the Jerusalem Post in an interview. We always wanted Bashar Assad to go, we always preferred the bad guys who werent backed by Iran to the bad guys who were backed by Iran. He said this was the case even if the bad guys were affiliated with al-Qaeda.
And, in June 2014, speaking as a former ambassador at an Aspen Institute conference, Oren expanded on his position, saying Israel would even prefer a victory by the brutal Islamic State over continuation of the Iranian-backed Assad in Syria. From Israels perspective, if theres got to be an evil thats got to prevail, let the Sunni evil prevail, Oren said.
delrem
(9,688 posts)The most basic technique that there is.
Waiting For Everyman
(9,385 posts)It certainly explains a lot.
Douglas Carpenter
(20,226 posts)right than wrong - It is pretty much correct, I think.
libdem4life
(13,877 posts)who might have been my former enemy, but no matter. Just tell us where to send arms this week.
Just in case...
eridani
(51,907 posts)libdem4life
(13,877 posts)You haven't read about Obama "pondering" about arms to Ukraine while Merkel and Hollande hurried over to work on a diplomatic arrangement, hopefully to keep the US out of Europe's business? Or the Balkans?
No, we don't do war anymore...just side with our pick that, in this case, has already created Regime Change. Some people regard foreign arms, foreign troops, foreign bases and other continents (North America) taking political sides to be a form of war. Still, I never mentioned war.
http://academic.evergreen.edu/g/grossmaz/interventions.html
kelliekat44
(7,759 posts)Israel is in an alliance with the majority perps of 9/11. Cue the conspiracy theories about 9/11...