Attack on Syria

Israel bombed Syria twice in the last few days. The last time took out a huge weapons depot, reportedly long-range missiles that were going to be transferred to Hezbollah. There are many videos on YouTube of the secondary explosions.J.E. Dyer has one of the best explanations I’ve found. Ynet has the best collection of videos. The Iron Dome has been deployed on the border with Syria. And in a display of chutzpah, the country that is breaking UNSC resolution 1701 on a daily basis is going to complain to the UN that Israel is breaking something or other. That’s gall: Complaining that by destroying weapons that violate UNSCR 1701, Israel is breaking UNSCR 1701.

Lebanese Daily Star website quoted caretaker FM Adnan Mansour as saying “such aggression which represents a blatant violation of Lebanon’s sovereignty and international resolution including UNSCR 1701.”

Yes, UNIFIL is doing such an awesome job. Let’s let them administer Jerusalem! (/sarc)

Of course the AP has its usual schizophrenic reporting. Here’s one paragraph early on in a story about the bombing:

Israel believes Hezbollah has restocked its arsenal with tens of thousands of rockets and missiles, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly stated the Jewish state would be prepared to take military action to prevent the Islamic militant group from obtaining new weapons that could upset the balance of power.

Note that bolded part. Now, later on in the same article.

After Hezbollah’s military infrastructure was badly hit during the 2006 war, the group was rearmed by Iran and Syria — with Tehran sending the weapons and Damascus providing the overland supply route to Lebanon.

You see what they do? They make the reader doubt the facts early on in the story, and then affirm them far down in the article. And then bolster the facts with quotes from experts.

“This is a very sophisticated network of Iranian arms, Syrian collection, storage, distribution and transportation to Hezbollah,” said Salman Shaikh, director of The Brookings Doha Center and in 2007 involved in U.N. weapons monitoring in Lebanon.

Shaikh said Israel had detailed knowledge of weapons shipments to Hezbollah at the time and most likely has good intelligence now. “The Israelis are watching like hawks to see what happens to these weapons,” he said.

What the hell, AP? What the hell?

In the meantime, Reuters goes into detail about what weapons were bombed and how.

A shipment of Fateh 110 missiles manufactured by Iran and meant for the Hezbollah was the target of the Israeli Air Force in an attack on Damascus International Airport on Friday, and a later attack at a military research facility north of the capital city, said Western intelligence sources Sunday morning, following the second strike.

That puts Tel Aviv and points south at risk of a warhead that can carry half a ton of explosives.

President Obama said that Israel has the right to make sure weapons don’t fall into terrorists’ hands.

“What I have said in the past and I continue to believe is that the Israelis justifiably have to guard against the transfer of advanced weaponry to terrorist organizations like Hezbollah.

So much for the assholes with the “We are all Hezbollah” signs during the Lebanon war seven years ago. Also, you know, I think the president has figured out who is true friends in the Middle East are.

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