Israeli Airstrikes Against Syria.

In the very early hours of Friday (3/5/13)  morning vehicles were destroyed close to the Syria/Lebanon border. It has since been confirmed - off the record - that this was an Israeli air-strike against a convoy carrying Russian made SA-7 MAN Portable Air Defence System (MANPAD) missiles bound for Hezbollah in Lebanon. In the early hours of Sunday (6/5/13) multiple, large explosions occurred at the Jamraya research centre on the outskirts of the Syrian capital Damascus. Although Israel never comments publicly on this type of operation it is widely believed that this was another Israeli air-strike targeting an SA-7 storage facility.

I think it is possible to read too much into these air-strikes. After all a state war does exist between Israel and Syria and these type of weapons do present a clear and present danger to Israel's safety and security. Therefore primarily I consider them to be necessary strikes against legitimate military targets. However coming in a week in which US provocation of Israel over the issues of Syrian weapons and the US' Rhianna operation has dramatically intensified they are also clearly Israel's response.

Although their efforts have been dwarfed by recent events the CIA has long supported insurgent groups in Syria since long before the so-called 'Arab Spring' and the current mayhem in the country. The excuse has always been that by weakening the Syrian government the US was in turn weakening Hezbollah and through that helping to protect Israel. This is simply not the case. Over the past week Hezbollah has officially confirmed that it is sending fighters to help support the Syrian government. Quite apart from the real-world training this gives its fighters Hezbollah is being rewarded for this support through access to the Syrian arsenal of high powered, military grade weaponry. This only makes Hezbollah stronger and unchecked could put them in a position to attempt an invasion of Israel. If the Syrian government collapses Hezbollah and other more radical Islamist groups could well exploit the chaos to get hold of Syria's Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD). They would then be able to mount attacks on Israel that would kill a significant proportion of Israel's civilian population.

Therefore the Israeli air-strikes were intended to highlight the severity of the situation to the US. The fact that Israel was able to carry out the attacks unaided was a clear response to the US threat to Israel through the Massive Ordinance Penetrator (MOP) that Israel must obey the US in return for US protection. The strike against the Jamraya research centre was intended to highlight that foreign intervention such as the air-strikes needed to set up a suggested no-fly zone will rapidly hasten the fall of the Syrian government and is therefore a red-line that must not be crossed. The attack close to the Syria/Lebanon border while we were awaiting Rihanna to cross the Canada/US border was a clear reminder that if "Operation Misery" were to be terminated I could dust off the "Operation Ostrava" designation and that along with Mali should be the priority at this point.

11:45 on 6/5/13.

Edited at around 15:40 on 6/5/13 to add;

Since my Friday (3/5/13) Tweet US Federal authorities have got heavily involved in managing the public statements regarding the California wildfires. They are now being very keen to emphasises how under control these wildfires are in a effort to force the wildfires to better fit the official message regarding the 'community contaiment' of the Rihanna/Chris Brown operation. This has been aided by genuine changes to weather conditions which have brought significant relief to the actual Los Angeles communities involved. I think this deserves a blog post of it's own. After all it certainly disproves the claim that Rihanna controls the weather because the weather has clearly being countermanding Rihanna's efforts. Unfortunately I'm already two pints down so I don't see that happening today.

Also Chris Brown has celebrated his birthday in Las Vegas where he was joined by on/off girlfriend Kerrueche Tran. On the surface this was intended to be interpreted that Chris Brown and Rihanna's relationship is now over or 'contained by the community.' In reality though it was intended to increase the pressure on Rihanna's core social group with some members expressing anger at the news and other members expressing relief. The US decided to emphasise this tension by setting fire to a limousine on a bridge in San Francisco. The limousine represents Rihanna's tour bus and we are left to speculate who the five dead and five injured women are. Therefore I think it is fair to say that the US position has hardened in response to the Israeli air-strikes. However I don't think they've yet had time to fully digest and understand the implications of the Israeli strikes.

As for Rihanna herself I'm about to go and have a look to see what she has been up too. However I gather having being given a surprise day off in which to dwell on Chris Brown's birthday celebrations and the Live Nation promoted boxing 'match' between Floyd 'wife-beater' Mayweather and Robert Guerrero through the use of Brooklyn's Barclays Centre arena for the New York Nets V Chicago Bulls NBA basketball play-off game Rihanna spent the day at the Barclays centre watching the Nets V Bulls game before partying at the 40/40 nightclub which is part of the Barclays centre. To me that just shows a worrying lack of imagination.

(Originally Posted 6/5/13)