Israel’s attack on Syria is an attack on Donald Trump’s Middle East policies

Israel has had a cold war with Syria, which occasionally becomes hot, almost since the inception of Syria as an independent state. More than any other country which participated in the Arab-Israeli wars of 1967 and 1973, Syria has been the most consistent in supporting justice for Palestine and therefore incurs a special piece of Tel Aviv’s wrath.

The Israeli bombing of Mezzeh airport, located near Damascus was totally unprovoked and is a clear act of war. But then again Israel is always perpetrating acts of war against Syria. Syria rarely retaliates for the pragmatic reason that, responding in kind to Israel might start a third world war due to US commitments to Israel. Syria therefore exercises pragmatism in such instances.

Beyond the injustice and tragedy of the bombing, one must examine the timing. It is unlikely that the Israeli bombing could have taken place without the knowledge and authorisation of the United States. Indeed, Israel has been chanting ‘Assad must go’ (father and son) when Obama was smoking weed with his mates in Hawaii.

Obama has been doing everything to sabotage Trump, prior to taking office. He and his deep state allies are doing everything possible to make the transition as difficult as possible. Trump is pro-Israel and he is not anti-Assad. Could this attack be used to force Trump to choose sides?

Coming a week before Trump’s inauguration, I believe the attack was indeed designed to compromise Trump whose previous positions were that, Assad can stay because those fighting him are radical Islamic terrorists who pose a danger to America where Assad poses none.

Now though if this is seem to be contradictory to Trump’s support for Israel vis-à-vis Palestine, some might force him to choose.

This is my message to Donald Trump and I speak as someone who believes in justice for Palestine and have done all my life:

If other Arab states don’t need to choose between their own survival and their own fight against terrorism and doing NOTHING to help Palestine, NOR DO YOU! Egypt for example has a government opposed to ISIS, Al-Qaeda and other terrorist factions active in Syria. Under President Sisi, Cairo has moved closer to both Damascus and Russia. However, Egypt continues to totally ignore the Palestinian cry for justice. They have completely abandoned Nasser’s legacy on the issue. If Egypt as a neighbour, can have it both ways, so could Trump’s America.

Again, the only country that could hopefully solve this crisis at this point is Russia. Russia is an ally to Assad yet remains respected in Tel Aviv. Russia has important trade links with Israel despite historic Russian sympathies to Palestine, sympathies which remain to this day.

As long time Palestine supporter George Galloway said, ultimately America ought to step back from the Israel-Palestine issue. America’s lack of credibility on the subject means that US brokered deals could do little to create lasting peace. Russia on the other hand, still could perhaps pull off a miracle, although it would not happen over night.

In respect of the current Israel-Syria crisis, Russia can help stop this from escalating before the 20^th and Putin also might want to remind Trump that America needn’t be more Egyptian than the Egyptians in respect of relations with both Syria and Israel.