There is a very interesting game being played in the Middle East, as Russia and Iran had been propping up Syria in the civil war against Al-Qaeda jihadists run by the west with Turkey taking a major management role now. But they have now just stepped aside and let Syria fall with Assad’s family having left weeks ago, and Assad now popping up in Moscow. Perhaps the deal for Russia is getting the breakaway regions in Ukraine in a peace deal under Trump, which they just about have full control over while advancing in the war. And Iran is perhaps preventing their nation from being conquered as it was one of the nations the west had on a list for takeover, one of the Wes Clark seven.
And Israel is part of the game as they maneuvered before the fall of Syria. And these jihadists that now have control of Syria are talking about taking Jerusalem and setting the Gazans free. I’m stricken by the book of Revelation with Antichrist rising up to usher in a false peace deal with Israel. But it would appear that Israel is taking over the gas reserves in Gaza, and the Syrian war was over competing pipelines between Iran and Saudi Arabia to feed Europe, which has been fed with American gas via ships all this time. And our military is still in Syria protecting oil resources for someone as well as Russia still having the naval and air base on the coast having said they’ve been promised safety by the new rulers of Syria. So we’re being told one thing, but it’s really just theater as economic deals are being worked out in back channels. Is this a setup to feed jihadists into a meat grinder with Israel to be wiped out? Will Israel be overwhelmed and is the time of Antichrist at hand?
By Joel B. Pollak
Israel’s Army Radio reported Sunday that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) had seized the peak of Mount Hermon, the highest mountain in the region, as a precaution against the advance of Syrian rebels as the Assad regime collapsed.
The mountain, covered in snow during the winter months, is the highest in the region, and a key strategic point. Israel has a military base on the mountainside, but Syria has long had a military base on the peak of the mountain itself.
The move marks the first time Israeli troops have been on the peak of the mountain since the Yom Kippur War in 1973.
In that conflict, Syria and Egypt surprised Israel with an attack on the Jewish faith’s holiest day. Syrian troops took over an Israeli base lower down on the mountainside on the first day of the war, October 6, killing many troops from the elite Golani brigade.
An Israeli counterattack on October 8 failed, fighting uphill. But Israel took the peak in a fierce battle from October 21 to 22 in which paratroopers landed by helicopter at the peak and fought their way downwards as another force ascended the mountain, trapping the Syrians and taking both the Israeli and Syrian positions.
Israel eventually returned the Syrian base at the peak as a part of a deconfliction agreement at the end of the war.
Today, a memorial to the fallen Golani troops sits on the Israeli side of the Hermon, in the Golan Heights.
Israel has cautiously welcomed the demise of the Assad regime, a fierce enemy for more than five decades. However, Israel stressed the danger of both sides in the Syrian fight, noting that the rebels include Al Qaeda and ISIS terrorists.
As Breitbart News reported, the IDF moved tanks into the demilitarized zone between Israel and Syria on Sunday as a deterrent, and set up checkpoints on its own territory in the Golan Heights to prevent terrorist infiltration from Syria.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, visiting the Israeli-Syrian border with Foreign Minister Israel Katz, delivered a statement calling the fall of the Assad regime “a historic day for the Middle East,” but noted that it offers both opportunities and dangers. He said that Israel hoped for “neighborly relations and peaceful relations” with Syria.
There is speculation Israel may occupy portions of Syrian territory near its Golan Heights border as a buffer zone.