How the US and Israel Destroyed Syria and Called It Peace

[planosteve]

In the famous lines of Tacitus, Roman historian, “To ravage, to slaughter, to usurp under false titles, they call empire; and where they make a desert, they call it peace.”

In our age, it is Israel and the U.S. that make a desert and call it peace.

The story is simple. In stark violation of international law, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his ministers claim the right to rule over seven million Palestinian Arabs. When Israel’s occupation of Palestinian lands leads to militant resistance, Israel labels the resistance “terrorism” and calls on the U.S. to overthrow the Middle East governments that back the “terrorists.” The U.S., under the sway of the Israel Lobby, goes to war on Israel’s behalf.

The fall of Syria this week is the culmination of the Israel-U.S. campaign against Syria that goes back to 1996 with Netanyahu’s arrival to office as Prime Minister. The Israel-U.S. war on Syria escalated in 2011 and 2012, when Barack Obama covertly tasked the CIA with the overthrow of the Syrian Government in Operation Timber Sycamore. That effort finally came to “fruition” this week, after more than 300,000 deaths in the Syrian war since 2011.

Syria’s fall came swiftly because of more than a decade of crushing economic sanctions, the burdens of war, the U.S. seizure of Syria’s oil, Russia’s priorities regarding the conflict in Ukraine, and most immediately, Israel’s attacks on Hezbollah, which was the key military backstop to the Syrian Government. No doubt Assad often misplayed his own hand and faced severe internal discontent, but his regime was targeted for collapse for decades by the U.S. and Israel.

Before the U.S.-Israel campaign to overthrow Assad began in earnest in 2011, Syria was a functioning, growing middle-income country. In January 2009, the IMF Executive Board had this to say:

Executive Directors welcomed Syria’s strong macroeconomic performance in recent years, as manifested in the rapid non-oil GDP growth, comfortable level of foreign reserves, and low and declining government debt. This performance reflected both robust regional demand and the authorities’ reform efforts to shift toward a more market- based economy.

Since 2011, the Israel-U.S. perpetual war on Syria, including bombing, jihadists, economic sanctions, U.S. seizure of Syria’s oil fields, and more, has sunk the Syrian people into misery.

In the immediate two days following the collapse of the government, Israel conducted about 480 strikes across Syria, and completely destroyed the Syrian fleet in Latakia. Pursuing his expansionist agenda, Prime Minister Netanyahu illegally claimed control over the demilitarized buffer zone in the Golan Heights and declared that the Golan Heights will be a part of the State of Israel “for eternity.”

Netanyahu’s ambition to transform the region through war, which dates back almost three decades, is playing out in front of our eyes. In a press conference on December 9th, the Israeli prime minister boasted of an “absolute victory,” justifying the on-going genocide in Gaza and escalating violence throughout the region:

I ask you, just think, if we had acceded to those who told us time and again: ‘”The war must be stopped”– we would not have entered Rafah, we would not have seized the Philadelphia Corridor, we would not have eliminated Sinwar, we would not have surprised our enemies in Lebanon and the entire world in a daring operation-stratagem, we would not have eliminated Nasrallah, we would not have destroyed Hezbollah’s underground network, and we would not have exposed Iran’s weakness. The operations that we have carried out since the beginning of the war are dismantling the axis brick by brick.

The long history of Israel’s campaign to overthrow the Syrian Government is not widely understood, yet the documentary record is clear. Israel’s war on Syria began with U.S. and Israeli neoconservatives in 1996, who fashioned a “Clean Break” strategy for the Middle East for Netanyahu as he came to office. The core of the “clean break” strategy called for the Israel (and the US) to reject “land for peace,” the idea that Israel would withdraw from the occupied Palestinian lands in return for peace. Instead, Israel would retain the occupied Palestinian lands, rule over the Palestinian people in an Apartheid state, step-by-step ethnically cleanse the state, and enforce so-called “peace for peace” by overthrowing neighboring governments that resisted Israel’s land claims.

The Clean Break strategy asserts, “Our claim to the land—to which we have clung for hope for 2000 years—is legitimate and noble,” and goes on to state, “Syria challenges Israel on Lebanese soil. An effective approach, and one with which American can sympathize, would be if Israel seized the strategic initiative along its northern borders by engaging Hizballah, Syria, and Iran, as the principal agents of aggression in Lebanon…”

In his 1996 book Fighting Terrorism, Netanyahu set out the new strategy. Israel would not fight the terrorists; it would fight the states that support the terrorists. More accurately, it would get the US to do Israel’s fighting for it. As he elaborated in 2001:

The first and most crucial thing to understand is this: There is no international terrorism without the support of sovereign states.… Take away all this state support, and the entire scaffolding of international terrorism will collapse into dust.

https://www.unz.com/article/how-the-us- ... -it-peace/

[GRANDPA]

Yeah, Syria would be paradise, heaven on Earth and all hunky-dory if it wasn't for Israel & the US.

[planosteve]

Yeah, Syria would be paradise, heaven on Earth and all hunky-dory if it wasn't for Israel & the US.

Without the US Israel wouldn't even be. And there was no "holocaust".

[GFB]

Yeah, Syria would be paradise, heaven on Earth and all hunky-dory if it wasn't for Israel & the US.

Without the US Israel wouldn't even be. And there was no "holocaust".

That was really dumb

[planosteve]

Yeah, Syria would be paradise, heaven on Earth and all hunky-dory if it wasn't for Israel & the US.

Without the US Israel wouldn't even be. And there was no "holocaust".

That was really dumb

The "Holocaust" is one of if not the greatest scam in history. One main proof is the European census which did not show a decrease of anywhere near 6 million jews during that period. Another was 3 investigations examining the larger camps that all showed there were not nearly enough crematory ovens at any of the camps to have processed the number of bodies claimed.
The 3 books written to document these investigations are virtually extinct.

[GFB]

Without the US Israel wouldn't even be. And there was no "holocaust".

That was really dumb

The "Holocaust" is one of if not the greatest scam in history. One main proof is the European census which did not show a decrease of anywhere near 6 million jews during that period. Another was 3 investigations examining the larger camps that all showed there were not nearly enough crematory ovens at any of the camps to have processed the number of bodies claimed.
The 3 books written to document these investigations are virtually extinct.

..and you’re a dope

[planosteve]

That was really dumb

The "Holocaust" is one of if not the greatest scam in history. One main proof is the European census which did not show a decrease of anywhere near 6 million jews during that period. Another was 3 investigations examining the larger camps that all showed there were not nearly enough crematory ovens at any of the camps to have processed the number of bodies claimed.
The 3 books written to document these investigations are virtually extinct.

..and you’re a dope

And what is Jeffery Sachs?