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Monday, December 09, 2024

12/09 Links Pt1: This Is What Imperial Collapse Looks Like; The suicide of the Israel haters; Israel denies report hostage deal in ‘advanced stage’

From Ian:

Seth Mandel: This Is What Imperial Collapse Looks Like
It seems odd that the great mass of “anti-imperialist” students and scholars are so unenthusiastic about having a real-world example to point to. Nonetheless, the end of the Assad rule in Syria, whatever else it may also mean, signifies the textbook dissolution of an empire whose time has come and gone.

That empire is, of course, Iran’s.

The Iranian government itself may not fall. The end of the Russian Empire did not result in the disappearance of Russia, and the same is true of most empires. But Iran’s empire is crumbling.

It is appropriate, then, that it appears to be ending where it began: in Syria.

The Iran-Iraq War that consumed most of the 1980s reshaped political alliances in odd ways, one of which was that Baathist Syria aligned itself against Baathist Iraq and with non-Arab Iran.

zran expanded into Lebanon by helping to launch Hezbollah. This proved to be the most advantageous of any of its investments. Born of chaos and opportunism, Hezbollah was Iran’s successful effort to organize Lebanon’s disparate militias under one umbrella, while gaining Tehran a Mediterranean outlet.

Soon the Lebanon and Syria branches of this imperial tree would start to benefit each other. Iran used Syria to transfer arms and other terrorism supplies to Hezbollah, and Hezbollah’s leadership helped guide Bashar al-Assad when he succeeded his father, Hafez, as president of Syria at the young age of 34.

In the late 1980s, Iran was also an “angel investor,” so to speak, in Hamas. “Since its formation in late 1987, Hamas has received and continues to receive significant financial and other support from Iran,” writes Matthew Levitt, counterterrorism program director at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. “By 1994, Palestinian author-turned-legislator Ziad Abu-Amr wrote that Iran ‘provides logistical support to Hamas and military training to its members,’ estimating Iranian assistance to Hamas ‘at tens of millions of dollars.’ Over time, this figure would rise steadily.”

Saddam Hussein’s Iraq was an important source of funding and training for Hamas. After Hussein’s fall, Iran stepped in to fill the void left by its old rival. Khaled Meshaal, the Hamas leader based until 2012 in Syria, played a key role in increasing Iran’s operational control over the Palestinian terror group.
Brendan O'Neill: The suicide of the Israel haters
They tried to destroy the Jewish State and ended up destroying themselves. The 7 October effect is extraordinary. Fourteen months after Hamas visited its racist savagery on the people of southern Israel, the so-called Axis of Resistance is in tatters. Hamas is gravely weakened as a result of the ruinous war it started. Hezbollah has been spectacularly humiliated, its leadership almost entirely wiped out by the IDF. And now the Assad regime has fallen. This ‘keystone’ of the Iran-led ‘Axis of Resistance’ is no more. The Iranian regime hasn’t looked this rattled, this isolated, this existentially brittle, since the Iran-Iraq war that followed its Islamic Revolution in 1979. Has there ever been a greater self-inflicted blow in world affairs than 7 October?

The fall of Assad is first and foremost a good day for the people of Syria. People are right to raise questions about what comes next, about what the Islamists of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and their various allies might do now they’ve conquered Damascus. But the staggeringly swift fall of the Assad regime, a testament to its superficiality, should be welcomed by all who love liberty. Bashar al-Assad, like his father Hafez before him, was the cruellest of rulers. He viciously suppressed dissent, jailed his critics, massacred Kurds and invited Russia to help him slaughter tens of thousands of his own countrymen during the civil war. The Syrians dancing in the streets following his spineless fleeing are not doing so because they’ve read every policy statement of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and agree with it all. They’re doing so because they feel the sweet relief of deliverance from Assad’s boot on their throats. It’s their Berlin Wall moment and it should not be begrudged them.

Yet Assad’s fall also speaks to the suicidal dynamic of 7 October. Hamas’s pogrom set in motion a chain of events that proved catastrophic for the pogromists themselves and their apologists. Assad’s scalp is the greatest prize yet in this self-destruction of the Israelophobes. That his shallow government, all-powerful but unrooted, was so speedily put into the history books by the advancing rebels is down to two things. First, and most importantly, the distraction of Russia. Assad’s allies in Moscow are too busy killing Ukrainians to be able help him kill Syrians this time round. Without the brute force of Russian back-up, Assad’s hollow government collapsed overnight. That Syrian soldiers in city after city downed arms as the rebels arrived spoke to the regime’s pathological frailty in the absence of Russian muscle.

The second problem for the Assadists was the gutting of Hezbollah by the IDF in recent months. Hezbollah played a central role in propping up the Assad regime during the civil war. Where Russia slayed rebels from the air, Hezbollah did it on the ground. It both trained pro-Assad militias in the ‘art’ of urban warfare and took part in major clashes, including the Battle of al-Qusayr when Assad forces and Hezbollah militants won back the key supply route of al-Qusayr in western Syria. The Center for the National Interest in Washington, DC went so far as to say that Hezbollah was ‘winning the war in Syria’, using its ‘battlefield acumen’ to re-establish Assad’s rule. In 2024, though, Hezbollah could do precisely nothing to assist its allies in Damascus. Like Russia, it is distracted. In fact, it is virtually defeated.

Where once Hezbollah ‘deployed its well-trained fighters’ to aid Assad, says the BBC, that ‘did not happen this time’ because Hezbollah is ‘preoccupied with [its] own affairs’. That’s one way of putting it. Actually, Hezbollah is suffering one of the worst ignominies of its entire existence as a result of the fallout from the 7 October pogrom it supported. In the days after Hamas’s butchery in southern Israel, Hezbollah started raining missiles on northern Israel in an act of solidarity with the Jew-killers. It was a low-level war for months until Israel upped the ante in September this year. It launched its devastating ‘pagers attack’ and took out Hezbollah leaders one by one, including the secretary-general, Hassan Nasrallah. Last month, Hezbollah agreed to the humiliating terms of a ceasefire deal with Israel that effectively forces it to vacate southern Lebanon and, worse, to submit to the authority of the Lebanese government.
How Assad’s Potemkin dictatorship crumbled
And just like that, Bashar al-Assad’s reign over Syria is no more. Over the course of a mere two weeks, what looked from the outside like a brutal but relatively stable regime has evaporated into thin air.

When several thousand opposition fighters, headed up by Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), launched their offensive in late November, few would have predicted their triumph. Riding out from their anti-Assad hold-outs in Syria’s north-west, in pick-up trucks and on motorbikes, they looked like what they were – a fearsome set of militias, but surely no match for a state army backed by Russian airpower.

The HTS-led forces soon took towns and villages with ease. By last weekend, they had captured Syria’s second city, Aleppo, and were seemingly advancing on the capital, Damascus. Even then, few inside and outside Syria believed that Moscow-backed government forces would not at some stage mount a counter-offensive. On Saturday, Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov insisted that Russia ‘was trying to do everything possible to prevent terrorists from prevailing’. Rumours circulating that Assad had fled were denied. The interior ministry announced that the army was forming a ‘ring of steel’ around the capital. Surely, there would be a fightback.

But the fightback never came. The insurgents were able to enter and capture Damascus without really having to lift a weapon – except to fire celebratory shots into the sky. By Sunday, HTS had announced that ‘the city of Damascus is free from the tyrant Bashar al-Assad’, and a few hours later HTS leader Abu Muhammad al-Jolani, now going by his original name Ahmed al-Sharaa, was declaring victory in a speech to the nation from within Damascus’ historic Umayyad mosque, the same mosque at which Assad would usually mark Eid.

The speed with which Assad’s rule has collapsed and the sheer absence of any resistance reveals a stark truth about Syria’s fallen dictatorship. It has been completely hollowed out over the past decade or more of conflict. This was a regime built on repressive force that now lacked any actual force. A regime whose authority rested on military strength that now lacked a strong military. And so when Islamist factions pushed at the doors to the palace, as they did both literally and figuratively this weekend, they simply opened.

Few will mourn the passing of the Assad family’s half-century-long exercise in despotism. Bashar’s father, former airforce pilot Hafez al-Assad, had been a key player in a military coup in 1963, which brought the Ba’ath Party to power. When Hafez became president in 1971, it wasn’t due to popular support. From the start, his regime’s authority rested almost entirely on its use of force, principally through Syria’s much feared intelligence and security agencies.

Bashar al-Assad inherited this repressive regime, complete with its brutal security apparatus, in 2001. Initially feted by the West, this British-educated ophthalmologist set about liberalising Syria’s economy, largely for his and his network’s own benefit. At the same time, he busied himself repressing any hints of dissent and striking up a close relationship with Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in neighbouring Lebanon – all the better to suppress their mutual opponents.


Netanyahu: ‘We’re dismantling the Iranian axis piece by piece’
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the significance of the collapse of the Assad regime in Syria and spoke of Israel’s progress in the “existential war” forced upon it during a nationally televised press conference on Monday, which ended in a fiery back-and-forth with reporters.

“Yesterday, a new chapter opened, a dramatic chapter, in the history of the Middle East,” the prime minister said. “The Assad regime in Syria, a central link in Iran’s axis of evil, has collapsed after 54 years.”

The billions Iran pumped into Syria to prop up Syrian President Bashar Assad’s tyrannical rule has “gone down the drain,” he noted.

That regime had spread hostility towards Israel, attacked Israel during the 1973 Yom Kippur War, and “served as an outpost of Iranian terrorism and as a conduit for weapons from Iran to Hezbollah,” he said.

Netanyahu took credit for the regime’s collapse—a “direct result” of the “heavy blows” Israel inflicted on Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran.

Israel has worked since the Hamas-led terrorist attacks in the south on Oct. 7, 2023, to systematically “dismantle the axis of evil,” referring to Iran’s reach across the region via its proxies—a “path of terror from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean Sea: from Iran to Iraq, from Iraq to Syria, and from Syria to Lebanon.”

The prime minister detailed the Israeli military’s successes to date, as laid out in a plan by the Cabinet, in which first Hamas would be dismantled followed by Hezbollah in the north.

“On the ninth of October, two days after the outbreak of the war, I told the heads of the authorities in the south: ‘We will change the face of the Middle East,'” Netanyahu said.

“In the Gaza Strip, we destroyed the Iranian arm, destroyed the Hamas battalions, eliminated the top of the organization, crushed the terrorist infrastructures—those above ground and those below ground. We returned 155 abductees, of which 117 are alive,” he said, promising to return “every last” hostage.

Then in Lebanon, Israel resorted to a “bold trick,” he said, referring to a pager explosion operation in September, followed by similar walkie-talkie explosions, in which as many as 4,000 Hezbollah terrorists were maimed and 42 killed.

The IDF cut down Hezbollah’s leadership, destroyed its strongholds, “built over decades,” and a significant part of its missile and rocket stockpile, he said, noting that eliminating Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, was the game-changer.

Netanyahu described Nasrallah as a linchpin—”the axis of the axis,” that connected Hezbollah, Syria and Iran. His death was a “turning point in the collapse of the axis.”

“Nasrallah is no longer with us, and neither is the axis what it was. We are breaking it down piece by piece,” he said.
Richard Kemp: Jihadi terrorists now rule Syria
Given the Assad regime’s monstrosities, many in the West have been enthusiastic about its fall, with some even hailing HTS as the good guys, led on by the apparently reasonable rhetoric of their leader Abu Mohammad al-Jolani.

Not so fast. We can see many echoes of Afghanistan in what’s been happening in Syria. A similar power vacuum emerged there after Joe Biden pulled US forces out in 2021, leading to an astonishingly rapid Taliban advance. As in Afghanistan, demoralised Syrian government forces collapsed in the face of the jihadist march, with many melting away and some switching sides. In some places political accommodation has also been achieved by local leaders who preferred not to fight.

But remember also how in 2021 the Taliban tried to convince the world that they had changed from the group that inflicted such brutality on the country before being ejected 20 years earlier. Their spokesman said they would not seek revenge on those who had collaborated with Coalition forces and the US-backed government, and would even respect women’s rights and press freedom.

We know how that worked out. Well, HTS is trying the same trick now. Jolani has even gone so far as to declare that “diversity is a strength”. He has suggested that the people of Syria have nothing to fear and that his intent is to decentralise governance in the country, with the various ethnic and religious groups being freed to rule their own areas.

No doubt this was an effort to diminish resistance as HTS advanced and also to gain some kind of acceptance among gullible Westerners. But we should not forget that HTS is a jihadist group with origins in Al Qaeda, including the remnants of the group led by Abu Musab al Zarqawi, a Palestinian Jordanian known as the “sheikh of the slaughterers”. Wherever they have had authority, they have inflicted abuse.

So if HTS does emerge out of the fall of Assad as the country’s new rulers, we should be under no illusion that what will follow will be any more palatable. If anything the situation is likely to be even worse, and not just for human rights in Syria.

Assad is a life-long enemy of Israel, and allowed Iran to use the country both as a transit route for munitions for Hezbollah in Lebanon and to build a base of attack against the Jewish state. But direct Syrian aggression against Israel has been limited by Russian influence as well as Assad’s desire for greater acceptance across the Arab world. No such restraint is likely to apply under HTS rule.

The HTS jihadists have been seizing weapons wherever they have found them. Now there is every likelihood that vast stockpiles of munitions, including chemical weapons, armoured fighting vehicles, combat planes and missiles will fall under their control.

To mitigate that nightmare scenario, the Israeli Air Force appears to have been striking critical weapons depots. That might turn out to be not just a service to their own country but to other nations and forces in the region as well.

For the time being, HTS have their sights set on control within Syria. But it is not credible that they will not turn their attention beyond the borders in time. And that may not be limited to aggression against Israel: there is every likelihood that Syria is once again about to become a major exporter of jihadist terrorism.

Before welcoming the rise of HTS, we should bear in mind that the enemy of my enemy can still be my enemy.
Andrew Neil: This is a disaster for Iran and the ayatollahs have never been more vulnerable. The smell of regime change is now in the Tehran air...
Israel stands vindicated in its uncompromising stance post-October 7. Palestinians who thought Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran were the routes to a better future have, yet again, made the wrong call.

It is worth noting, before fashionable opinion sweeps it under the rug, that Iran is now reeling because Israel ignored the foreign policy pressure of its Western allies and their liberal media echo chambers to hold back.

Washington, London and Paris all urged Israel to show restraint against Hamas and not to open a second front against Hezbollah. The New York Times, the BBC and Le Monde piled on the pressure for Israel to back off by constantly highlighting the humanitarian cost of the conflict, usually with suspect Hamas statistics.

But Israel took only cursory notice, pursued its own interests and did us all a favour.

Israel today can feel that bit safer. America is happy that the Assad regime is no more and Iran has been put in its box. But, like its European allies and Israel, it worries about what now fills the vacuum in Syria.

Donald Trump is anxious to avoid foreign entanglements and, in truth, there is no appetite on either side of the aisle in Washington to get involved in Syria.

But there are still 900 US troops in the south of the country, Assad leaves behind a stockpile of chemical weapons and a new Islamic State cannot be allowed to take root. So the Trump administration cannot entirely wash its hands of post-Assad Syria.

But the bigger headaches are in Tehran. Its foreign policy is in ruins, its reputation in the mud and its options limited. It could eschew the sabre-rattling and try to become more accommodating. That would be wise given the collapse of its allies and the formidable alliance — Israel, America, the Sunni Arab Gulf States — now arraigned against it.

But for the hardliners, the best way to regain the initiative and restore national pride is to up the pace of Iran's nuclear programme. Last week, US intelligence reported that Iran had now accumulated enough material to make more than a dozen nuclear weapons.

The people of Iran, of course, might have their say first. They have never shared the regime's anti-Semitism, its obsession with Israel, its imperialist expansion, or its passion for mediaeval theocracy.

They have watched billions squandered (as everyone can now see) on the likes of Hezbollah, while their lives are blighted by soaring inflation, high unemployment, failing public services and overall repression.

I do not claim the ayatollahs are yet tottering. But they have never been more vulnerable. The smell of regime change is in the Tehran air.


The State of Israel’s War against the Resistance Axis with Brig. Gen. (Res.) Amir Avivi
Since the October 7 attack, Israel has been engaged in a multifront war against Iran and its resistance axis proxies. While Israel has notched significant successes—neutralizing Hamas, crippling Hezbollah, and undermining Iran’s strategic posture—Jerusalem still faces substantial threats.

Join Center for Peace and Security in the Middle East Director Michael Doran for a conversation with Brigadier General (res.) Amir Avivi on the Israeli military’s achievements, the evolving strategic landscape in the region, and the challenges that lie ahead.




Call me Back Podcast: THE END OF ASSAD IN SYRIA - with Nadav Eyal
A lot has unfolded in the Middle East over the past 48 hours, with the fall of the Assad regime. Nadav Eyal returns to the podcast today for an emergency episode to discuss the end of Assad’s rule in Syria, and the implications for Israel.

Nadav Eyal is a columnist for Yediiot. He is one of Israel’s leading journalists. Eyal has been covering Middle-Eastern and international politics for the last two decades for Israeli radio, print and television news.

Timestamps:
00:00 Introduction
02:45 Immediate reaction to recent events in Syria
10:16 Can the collapse of Iran’s proxy system be compared to that of the Soviet Block?
15:43 What happened in the past 48 hours?
24:29 Where is the IDF right now?
38:29 Israel's 2007 move to take out the Syrian nuclear program


Ben Shapiro: Ben Reacts: The End of Assad in Syria
Ben Shapiro reacts to the breaking news of Bashar al-Assad’s regime being forced out of Syria—With terrorist rebels, and a region still plagued by risk and uncertainty, the situation is far from simple. Ben unpacks the power vacuum left behind, what this means for Iran, Hezbollah, and Russia.




The Fall of Assad: What’s Next for Syria and the Region? – with Lt. Col. (Ret.) Jonathan Conricus
The Assad regime has collapsed, marking a historic turning point in the Middle East. Long a cornerstone of Iran’s Axis of Resistance, Syria now stands at a crossroads. Rebel forces have delivered a major blow to Iran, Hezbollah, and Russia—while raising alarms about the rise of new jihadist groups.

For Israel, the resulting power vacuum introduces new security challenges, especially along its northern border. In this episode, Aviva Klompas speaks with Lt. Col. (Ret.) Jonathan Conricus, Middle East strategist and former IDF spokesperson, to break down the fallout from Assad’s collapse, its impact on Israel, and what lies ahead for the region.

Guest Bio:
Lt. Col. (Ret.) Jonathan Conricus is a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies focused on the Middle East. He served in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) for 24 years as a combat commander in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip. He also served as a military diplomat, foreign relations expert, and international spokesperson. He recently retired as lieutenant colonel. Jonathan was the first Israeli officer to be seconded to the United Nations (UN), during which he provided military and strategic analysis for UN peacekeeping forces. He has directed social media and public diplomacy efforts and has extensive on- and off-camera experience from his years as a spokesperson.


Tom Gross: Western politicians and media covered up for Assad for decades: don’t let them pretend they didn’t
Tom Gross (in the video clip above): Kerry was known as “Assad’s man in Washington.”

And I recall a large luncheon in 2008 where the keynote speaker was William Hague, soon to be British foreign secretary. “The good news,” gushed Hague “is that I have just returned from a trip to Damascus and had very fruitful discussions with President Assad who graciously showed me around.”

“Did he show you his nuclear sites?” murmured my friend the British writer Douglas Murray, whom I was sitting next to, in response to Hague’s gush. (Israel had destroyed Assad’s clandestine nuclear weapons program a few months earlier, much to the anger of many in the West.)


Katz orders IDF to create security zone beyond border with Syria
Defense Minister Israel Katz has ordered the Israel Defense Forces to create a secure area free of “heavy strategic weapons and terror infrastructure” beyond the buffer zone with Syria, the Defense Ministry announced Monday.

Katz said he had instructed the IDF to establish full control over the demilitarized buffer zone in the Golan Heights, which was established by the 1974 Disengagement of Forces Agreement between Damascus and Jerusalem and ended the 1973 Yom Kippur War.

The defense minister also ordered the continued destruction of strategic weapons that were previously held by the regime and Iranian-backed militias to prevent their falling into the hands of terrorist forces. Among these weapons are “surface-to-air missiles, air defense systems, surface-to-surface missiles, cruise missiles, long-range rockets and coast-to-sea missiles,” according to the ministry.

He has also instructed the army to “prevent and thwart the renewal of the arms smuggling route from Iran to Lebanon through Syria, in Syrian territory and at border crossing points.”

Lastly, Katz said he had asked the military to attempt to establish contacts with Syria’s Druze community and other local populations.

Former Syrian President Bashar Assad fled Damascus on Sunday after rebel groups stormed the capital, ending his family’s five-decade rule.

“The tyrant Bashar Assad has been overthrown,” a rebel spokesperson declared in a statement carried on state television on Sunday morning.

Following the events in Syria, the IDF was deployed to the buffer zone and “several other places necessary for its defense.” The army said the move, which followed a situational assessment, was taken to “ensure the safety of the communities of the Golan Heights and the citizens of Israel.”

Intelligence chiefs have warned that the collapse of the regime has the potential to create turmoil in which threats against Israel could develop.

The IDF said late on Sunday night that it was continuing to operate along the new border line with Syria, “focusing on intelligence gathering and defending the residents of Israel, particularly the Golan Heights.” The Syrian side of Mount Hermon was captured on Sunday by Israeli special forces, who reportedly did not encounter any resistance during the operation.

Israeli forces were also said to have been working to accelerate the construction of a fortified barrier along the border between the two countries, dubbed “New East.”

Meanwhile, two “Middle Eastern security sources” told Reuters that the IDF had targeted a research facility in Damascus believed to have been used by Iran to develop long-range guided missiles.

The IAF carried out numerous strikes in Syria overnight Sunday, taking out weaponry that Jerusalem fears could fall into the hands of hostiles. The strikes have reportedly targeted arms storage facilities, air defense systems and weapons production capabilities.


FDD: ‘Temporary Defensive Position’: Israel Takes Control of Golan Buffer Zone
Latest Developments
• Assad Ousted as Rebels Take Damascus: In the culmination of a 10-day sweep of Syria, Syrian rebels entered Damascus leading to the December 8 ouster of President Bashar al-Assad and the end of more than half-a-century of the Assad family’s brutal rule. “This is a historic day for the Middle East,” said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, adding that the Jewish state extended its hand in peace to all those in Syria who are willing to reciprocate. Jerusalem has, however, voiced concern about the Islamist terrorist roots of many of the presumptive new Syrian leaders. Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, cautioned that “these rebels aren’t lovers of Zion.”

• Armistice Deal Collapses: Citing the collapse of the 1974 armistice deal with Syria after Assad’s fall, Prime Minister Netanyahu ordered the IDF to take control of the 155 square mile buffer zone on the Syrian-held side of the Golan that had separated the countries’ armies. The maneuver effectively increased Israel’s hold on Golan territory by more than 30%, from 500 square miles to 655 square miles. Netanyahu, however, hinted at the possibility of a future withdrawal, saying, “This is a temporary defensive position until a suitable arrangement is found.”

• Golan Trench, Fence Fortified: In a bid to prevent a Hamas-style ground attack from Syria, Israel has begun digging a trench system on the Golan Heights designed to stymie terrorists from infiltrating Israel in pickup trucks or on motorbikes. It has also fortified the Gaza security fence. The IDF said on December 8 that further engineering work would be undertaken to buttress those barriers, now codenamed “New East”.

FDD Expert Response:
“One of the main lessons of the October 7 atrocities was that, in a Middle East where peace-loving pragmatists and bloodthirsty terrorists often live cheek by jowl, there is no substitute for strategic depth as a guarantee of security. Though the triumphant Syrian rebels are signaling the end of their territorial ambitions, Israel is rightly taking no chances and is padding out its vulnerable Golan communities with soil and soldiers. The onus will be on Damascus to prove its friendliness first.” — Mark Dubowitz, CEO

“As the conflict in Lebanon appears to be de-escalating, the downfall of Bashar al-Assad has forced the IDF to send troops to bolster Israel’s border with Syria. The security challenge for the IDF is that it does not have a clear understanding of what military posture jihadist groups, and their allies will implement regarding Israel. Historically, Islamist groups have not been friendly to Israel. With the significant number of weapons left behind by Assad’s forces — which will undoubtedly fall into the hands of various armed groups — the IDF is wisely taking action to minimize the potential threat posed by these actors in Syria.” — Joe Truzman, Senior Research Analyst and Editor at FDD’s Long War Journal
FM Sa’ar: IAF hit suspected chemical arms sites in Syria
The Israeli Air Force has struck suspected sites for the production of chemical weapons and long-range guided missiles in Syria to prevent them from falling into hostile hands, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said on Monday.

“We attacked strategic weapons systems, like, for example, remaining chemical weapons, or long-range missiles and rockets, in order that they will not fall in the hands of extremists,” Sa’ar told the Associated Press.

“The only interest we have is the security of Israel and its citizens,” he reiterated in his remarks to the wire agency. Sa’ar did not provide details about when or where the airstrikes were conducted.

The Syrian regime pledged to give up chemical weapons in 2013 after a mass attack on its own civilians in Ghouta in southwest Syria that year. Estimates of the death toll range from 300 people to more than 1,500.

In August 2023, an Israeli report warned of the possibility of Iranian-backed Hezbollah terrorists taking possession of chemical substances stored by the Syrian regime and using them to produce chemical weapons for use against IDF soldiers or civilians.


Israeli prosecutors file first charges against Gaza terrorists since Oct. 7
Israeli authorities on Monday charged three Hamas terrorists captured in the Gaza Strip, marking the first time an indictment was filed against Palestinians from the territory since the start of the war on Oct. 7, 2023.

The accused, Mahmoud Qawasme, Ali Hamdallah and Amar Asaida, were among the 1,027 terrorists Israel released in 2011 as part of the Shalit prisoner deal, the Israel Police said.

“Following their deportation to Gaza, the three suspects joined Hamas’s ‘West Bank Headquarters’ and served in a number of senior positions,” according to the statement, which noted that the “West Bank Headquarters” helped execute attacks against Israeli security forces and civilians “for many years.”

Prosecutors collected hundreds of testimonies confirming that the three men were involved in numerous terrorist attacks in Judea and Samaria, some 120 of which they directly ordered and directed, the Israel Police said.

Qawasme, Hamdallah and Asaida were arrested during the Israel Defense Forces operation in Gaza City’s Shifa Hospital in March.

They are being charged in military court with at least seven counts, including membership in a terrorist group, causing deaths, kidnappings, terror funding and weapons trafficking, police said.
Three soldiers killed in Gaza, bringing IDF toll to 816
Three Israel Defense Forces soldiers were killed battling Palestinian terrorists in the northern Gaza Strip on Monday, the military announced.

The slain troops were named as Staff Sgt. Ido Zano, 20, a combat medic with the Givati Brigade’s Shaked Battalion from Yehud-Monosson; Staff Sgt. Barak Daniel Halpern, 19, a squad commander in the battalion, from Kiryat Ono; and Sgt. Omri Cohen, 19, also a fighter in the Shaked Battalion, from Ashdod.

Twelve additional soldiers were wounded in the same incident—two of them seriously—a reservist from the battalion and a member of the Artillery Corps’ “Sky Rider” unit, which uses UAVs to collect and provide intelligence. They were evacuated by helicopter to the hospital.

Earlier on Monday, the IDF announced the deaths of four soldiers killed in Southern Lebanon despite the ceasefire currently in effect.

The slain men were identified as Maj. (res.) Evgeny Zinershain, 43, from Zichron Ya’akov; Capt. (res.) Sagi Ya’akov Rubinshtein, 31, from Kibbutz Lavi; Master Sgt. (res.) Binyamin Destaw Negose, 28, from Beit Shemesh; and Sgt. Maj. (res.) Erez Ben Efraim, 25, from Ramat Gan.

All four served in Battalion 9263 of the 226th “Nesher” Paratroopers Brigade, a reserve unit, the IDF said.

They were reportedly killed when munitions in a Hezbollah tunnel accidentally exploded.


Israel denies report hostage deal in ‘advanced stage’
Israel on Monday denied a Qatari report that suggested a “serious” advance in indirect negotiations between Jerusalem and Hamas for a “temporary ceasefire” deal that would include the release of Israeli hostages and Palestinian terrorists.

“These reports are not true,” the Hostage Affairs Directorate in the Prime Minister’s Office said in a message to the captives’ families.

“We continue to work tirelessly to bring the hostages home, while maintaining strict information security regarding the matter. We recommend relying exclusively on information from the official sources,” the message read.

Earlier on Monday, the London-based, Qatari-owned Al-Araby Al-Jadeed news outlet reported that negotiations between Israel and Hamas have reached an advanced stage, identifying the hostages and terrorists set to be swapped as part of a ceasefire agreement in the Gaza Strip.

According to the report, Hamas handed the Egyptian mediator a preliminary list of the Israeli hostages to be included in a forthcoming exchange deal. The report suggested that those who need medical treatment and the elderly were listed first by Hamas, as well as four hostages holding American citizenship.

The terrorist organization also submitted to officials in the Egyptian General Intelligence Service a list of the names of Palestinian prisoners it wishes to see released from Israeli prisons, the report read.

A source informed of the ongoing talks told Al-Araby Al-Jadeed that the negotiations are “unprecedentedly serious” and that Egypt, Qatar, Turkey and the United States are involved.
Reports of possible 'imminent' Hamas hostage deal
Sky News host Sharri Markson discusses reports of a possible hostage deal between Hamas and Israel.

"Channel 12 television news in Israel reports Hamas has provided the names of hostages and details about their medical conditions to Israeli authorities," Ms Markson said.

"This is said to include the names of sick and elderly individuals.

"We're yet to have this information confirmed – there are also unconfirmed reports a hostage deal could be imminent."




Jewish Australians’ worst fears have come true
The other big news item this weekend comes from Australia, where before dawn on Friday morning arsonists burned down a Melbourne synagogue. Before looking at this terrible assault, it’s worth noting something that happened last month: the former Israeli justice minister Ayelet Shaked came to Australia to give a series of talks and was denied entry into the country upon her arrival. Shaked described this as “a brutal political act” which happened because the country’s government “is confused between good and evil.”

Prior to October 7, there was relatively little anti-Semitism, or even virulent anti-Israel agitation, in Australia. Many of the country’s Jews in fact thought they were better off than their brethren in the United States, let alone in Britain or France. That all changed on October 8, when a mob gathered at the Sydney Opera House calling for Jewish blood. Justin Amler writes that

the most shocking aspect of Friday’s events is that the Jewish community is not even that surprised. . . . Only last week, the Executive Council of Australian Jewry released a report on anti-Semitism that showed incidents of Jew-hatred increased by a staggering 316 percent since October 7, 2023. And it’s likely that this is only a conservative figure, as many incidents go unreported.

In the past month alone, we’ve seen an attack in the Sydney suburb of Woollahra where cars were defaced with anti-Israel slogans. We’ve seen an Israeli tourist in Townsville being called a “dirty filthy f—ing Jew”, and we’ve seen anti-Israel protests at the Great Synagogue in Sydney, where the only person moved on by police was a Jewish man accused of a “breach of the peace” when he unfurled an Israeli flag opposite the protesters.

[W]e cannot understand why the government appears unable to condemn anti-Semitism without also talking about Islamophobia. Thus, attempting to be evenhanded, it decided it has to appoint a special envoy to combat Islamophobia alongside its special envoy to combat anti-Semitism. Attempts to equate the two are rooted in ideology or politics, not facts. Using comparable metrics, the number of anti-Semitic incidents dwarfs the number of Islamophobic incidents.

Meanwhile, in incident after incident, law enforcement seems determined to . . . abet mobs in making the streets and campuses unsafe for anyone who is visibly Jewish—moving Jews away from public areas “for their own safety” rather than confronting the protesters over their potential or actual violence.

And this brings us back to the banning of Ayelet Shaked, with which the government signaled that the Jewish state alone was anathema, and that the normal legal rules don’t apply to it—or, by extension, those who support it.
Police declare firebombing of synagogue a terrorist attack
Victorian police say they are hunting for three people suspected of torching the Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne over the weekend, which authorities have now designated as a terrorist act.

Police have “three suspects in that matter, who we are pursuing,” Victorian police chief commissioner Shane Patton told a news conference, adding that the fire is now considered a “terrorist attack.”

It comes after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said his personal view was that the attack was an act of terror.

A major fire swept through the Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne’s Ripponlea on Friday morning.

The fire, which caused substantial damage to two buildings of the synagogue, left Adass congregants shocked, some turning up as usual for morning prayers to find their shule badly gutted by the fire.

“The violence, intimidation and destruction of a place of worship is something that we should never see in Australia,” said Albanese.

“It’s risked lives and it’s clearly aimed at creating fear in the community.

“There are two persons of interest who were there. What was witnessed was them using accelerant and spreading it with a broom clearly designed to maximise the damage that could occur.

“I have zero tolerance for antisemitism. It has absolutely no place in Australia. This violence and intimidation and destruction at a place of worship is an outrage.

“The people involved must be caught and face the full force of the law.”

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton said the attack was “absolutely abhorrent”.

“I want to pretend that this wasn’t expected or that it couldn’t be predicted,” said Dutton.

“Everybody knew that antisemitism, that hatred and that vilification, that racism, was lurking beneath the surface. But what we’ve seen on our university campuses, what we’ve seen online, what we’ve seen against people of Jewish faith in the community has been completely and utterly unacceptable, and it should be totally condemned in our country.

“To see the firebombing of a synagogue, a place of worship, is something that is not welcome and has no place in our country whatsoever.”
Police searching for three suspects in Melbourne synagogue ‘terror attack’
Police are searching for three suspects in connection with the torching of the Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne, Australia, on Dec. 6, according to Victoria police chief commissioner Shane Patton, who told reporters on Monday that the arson was being treated as a terrorist attack.

While he said “significant progress” had already been made in the investigation, he declined to provide further details.

No one was hurt in the fire, but the synagogue was heavily damaged.

Victoria state premier Jacinta Allen said on Monday that the “evil, antisemitic attack … has now been declared a terror attack,” noting that “additional resources” could therefore be diverted to the probe.

Mask-wearing assailants on Friday set ablaze the Orthodox synagogue in Ripponlea, a suburb of Melbourne.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Monday announced the creation of a federal police taskforce to combat antisemitism, which will be deployed across the country to tackle threats, violence and hatred toward the Jewish community and parliamentarians.

“Antisemitism is a major threat, and antisemitism has been on the rise,” said Albanese.

Albanese, whose left-wing Labor government has been accused of pursuing anti-Israel policies, declined to address claims by his Israeli counterpart, Benjamin Netanyahu, that these positions had helped ignite the attack.

Asked about these allegations, Albanese said during an interview on Sunday: “Well, that is a matter for Mr. Netanyahu, but can I make this point very clearly, that 157 countries supported the resolution that was passed by the United Nations.”

Albanese was referencing a Dec. 4 vote at the U.N. General Assembly that called on Israel to “bring to an end its unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory as rapidly as possible.” Australia has traditionally opposed or abstained from voting on resolutions employing such language.

On Friday, Netanyahu suggested that the torching of the synagogue was inextricably linked to the Labor government in Canberra’s “extreme anti-Israelism.”
Jews have been abandoned by the Australian government
Since then, our streets have been taken over week after week by so-called “pro-Palestinian” protests. These are not peaceful gatherings. They’re filled with banned terrorist flags, open praise for violence, and slogans soaked in hate. The government not only allows these marches — it grants permits for them. What message does that send? Hate isn’t just tolerated here; it’s given a stage. And what message does that send to those who seek our destruction?

Just hours before the synagogue was attacked, the government voted against Israel at the United Nations — again. What made this vote even more devastating was that it wasn’t tied to anything as basic as demanding the release of Jewish hostages still held by Hamas. That should have been a non-negotiable. Instead, the government voted against the only democracy in the region with no conditions, and at the same time effectively voted against social cohesion in this country.

Let’s be clear: this wasn’t leadership. This wasn’t diplomacy. This wasn't humanitarianism. It was moral posturing, a move that might win points abroad but leaves Australian Jews abandoned at home. The consequences aren’t in the Middle East—they’re here, in our streets, where hate flourishes, unchallenged by those with the power to stop it.

The first duty of any government is to protect its citizens. Are Jewish Australians not citizens? Why, then, have we been effectively abandoned?

This failure isn’t just about us. When police stand by as hate marches through the streets, when violence is met with shrugs, and when leadership falters in the face of prejudice, the rot spreads. Hate, once normalised against one group, will eventually turn its gaze elsewhere. How long until others feel the consequences of this failure?

The firebombing of a synagogue wasn’t just an attack on the Jewish community— it was an attack on Australian society. A government that allows this kind of hatred to fester endangers not just Jews but every citizen. When hate is tolerated, no one is truly safe.

So no, no one should be surprised. “The standard you walk by is the standard you accept.” By turning a blind eye to marches of hate, by failing to condemn the glorification of terror, by prioritising politics over protection, the government has sent a loud and clear message: antisemitism is tolerated here. And in tolerating it, they have failed us all.

The arsonists who attacked the synagogue are, of course, responsible for this crime. But a government that ignores hatred, excuses prejudice, and enables an atmosphere of hostility cannot escape its share of the blame. The fire may have been lit by the arsonists, but who handed them the matches?

Jewish Australians are tired. Tired of being told to stay silent while hate marches past our doorsteps. Tired of being told to hope for change while our safety is disregarded. Tired of antisemitic attacks and abuse. Tired of waking up every morning wondering if today will bring another attack. This isn’t just about politics; it’s about the basic dignity and safety of every Australian.

Antisemitism is a cancer eating away at the soul of our society. Anything less than full, unequivocal action against it is complicity. Enough is enough.
EXCLUSIVE: Sharri Markson reveals ‘utter devastation’ inside Melbourne synagogue
In a special report, Sky News host Sharri Markson revealed the “utter devastation” inside the Adass Israel synagogue after it was firebombed in a terrorist attack on Friday.

Following days of investigation into the firebombing of the Melbourne synagogue, authorities have finally declared the attack to be a "terrorist incident".

“I went in with Yumi, a businessman who was studying inside at the time of the firebombing,” Ms Markson said.

“It was profoundly heartbreaking.”


PM has ‘disgracefully failed’ at keeping Australians safe: Sharri Markson

‘Out of control’: Albanese ‘ignored the warnings’ of the Jewish community

Calls for a National Cabinet to be held to address ‘out of control’ antisemitism

Josh Frydenberg slams ‘failure of leadership’ from government since October 7



‘Ominous’: Melbourne synagogue firebombing should concern ‘everyone’ regardless of faith

Sydney Jew detained for waving Israeli flag at anti-Israel protest
An Australian Jewish man detained outside a Sydney synagogue for waving an Israeli flag at pro-Palestinian protesters decried policing double standards that ignored anti-Israel activists.

Ofir Birenbaum and his wife had arrived at the Sydney Great Synagogue on Wednesday to attend the Technion 100 Years Grand Event and, before entering, waved an Israeli flag at the Stop the War on Palestine protest across the street.

Birenbaum was not only met with cries from anti-Israel protesters calling him a “murderer” but was immediately approached by a visibly angry police commander who castigated the Jewish community member for antagonizing the demonstrators.

“You’re just antagonizing them; [there is] no need to be here,” said the officer in a video recorded by Birenbaum. “You’re just coming here to cause drama.”

Birenbaum was ushered away from the synagogue, detained for breaching the peace, and not allowed to return to the street. Birenbaum demanded to know why the protest was not a breach of the peace, to which the officers said that the activists had permission to hold a rally.



Hate festival monitored by police
The New South Wales Police confirmed in a statement that the anti-Israel protest was, in fact, not authorized.

“The police treated this entire incident as [if] we crashed into their event,” said Birenbaum. “I would never go to their pro-Hamas weekly hate festival and wave an Israeli flag. This was a Jewish and Israeli event which they crashed, unauthorized, and waved their flags.

“One must wonder how come the first protester in front of a synagogue wasn’t detained for breaching the peace. I guess it’s ok to upset Jews, but not hate-filled ‘resistance’ supporters.”

Birenbaum said the result of “keeping the peace” meant that Jews were heckled while in synagogue and had to take security precautions like hiding Jewish symbols while leaving the event.
‘Horrified’: Holocaust survivor calls out Albanese government over rising antisemitism

‘Come after the Jews’: Sydney rally turns ugly with antisemitic hate slogans
Sky news host James Macpherson discusses a Sydney rally which turned ugly “chanting” antisemitic hate slogans.

“People celebrating in Sydney … onto the streets waving flags, chanting,” Mr Macpherson said.

“This comes just hours really after the synagogue in Melbourne was firebombed in an antisemitic attack … in the wake of that we have got lots of people out on the street in Sydney chanting Muhammad is going to come after the Jews.”


Controversial Islamic cleric shares shocking conspiracy theory after synagogue was firebombed
A fundamentalist Islamic cleric who labelled the Jewish race as 'vile' and 'treacherous' has spread a disturbing theory online in the wake of the Melbourne synagogue firebombing.

Controversial preacher Wissam Haddad told followers on Sunday he believed the Jewish community burned the place of worship 'in order to draw public sympathy'.

The Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne's east has been boarded up in the days since it was gutted by a devastating arson attack last Friday morning which rocked the Jewish community.

The incident has been labelled an act of 'terrorism' by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Victorian Police.

Mr Haddad claimed that the synagogue attack was a 'false flag' in a social media post.

'If Israel would kill its own citizens in a 'Hannibal directive', call me a conspiracy theorist, but is it plausible that a synagogue would be burnt in order to draw public sympathy or swing a parliamentary vote falseflag,' he wrote on Sunday.

The outspoken preacher previously told worshippers that Jews were 'cowards' in the Quran and still are today, before likening them to 'rats' under the name Abu Ousayd.

Daily Mail Australia has contacted Mr Haddad regarding his comments.


The Israel Guys: Israel Captures Parts of Syria after Assad Flees to Russia
The longstanding dictatorship of Bashar al-Assad fell with a crash as Syrian rebel groups seized control of the country in a lightning fast takeover. President Assad has resigned and fled the country and the new rebel leader of Syria turns out to be a terrorist himself. With all this chaos, Israel has taken over the buffer zone on the Israel/Syrian border and has been conducting airstrikes in Syria itself.


Threats lead to cancelation of Yoav Gallant event at D.C. synagogue
A large event featuring former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant that was scheduled to take place Monday at Adas Israel Congregation in Washington, D.C., was canceled a day earlier due to security threats, according to two sources with knowledge of the event’s planning.

The news was first reported in the Forward, whose report suggested the leadership of the synagogue gave in to left-wing members of the congregation who did not want Gallant to speak.

The idea that Adas Israel canceled the events due to protests within the synagogue “are a malicious lie, designed to pump up the false notion that the synagogue bowed to critics of hosting the former defense minister,” Washington Institute for Near East Policy Executive Director Robert Satloff wrote in a post on X. “As someone with intimate knowledge of the situation, I can state that is the opposite of the truth, which is that the synagogue looked forward to hosting Mr. Gallant.”

A community member with knowledge of the plans pointed out that because Adas Israel has one of the largest preschools in Northwest Washington, the synagogue must be particularly mindful of security risks.

“We were told that there were some security concerns because of some threats that they had received, so they asked us not to hold the event at the synagogue,” a spokesperson for Gallant told Jewish Insider. “It was never brought up that there was any sort of political issue or political pressure from anyone, and quite the opposite.”

In an email to the Adas Israel community on Monday, the synagogue’s executive committee asserted that the cancellation was due to security reasons.

“Contrary to speculation, this decision was not based on the event’s subject matter, but rather on our commitment to the safety of our community. Although we do not share details of security concerns publicly, we take them extremely seriously,” the committee wrote.

“Adas Israel Congregation has more than 5,000 members and has always been committed to creating space for a wide range of opinions and speakers on issues critical to our community,” the email continued. “Open dialogue is key to our commitment to Jewish values. While we regret this cancellation, safety remains our highest priority.”




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