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Hamas has been weakened but still remains a serious threat to Israel as does ISIS. (See 1 below.)
Meanwhile, special assistant appointee by Obama lambastes Israel.
Of course Obama' has Israel's back' but he expresses his true intent through an appointee lending him is knife. (See 2 below.)
But there are always two sides to every story. This is an article explaining how Israel has actually contributed to stabilizing the region.
You Decide. (See 2a below.)
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Will ISIS over reach? Time will tell.
In the interim be prepared for more terror. (See 3 below.)
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Dick
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By Sean Savage
With the launch of the Israeli army’s Operation Protective Edge in Gaza, much of the public’s attention has appropriately focused on Hamas, the Palestinian terrorist group behind the June 12 abduction and murder of three Jewish teens and more recently the escalation of rocket fire on Israel. But the threats the Jewish state faces from Gaza may not be as clear-cut as they seem.
While Hamas is still extremely deadly, it has seen a weakening of its grip on the coastal enclave over the past few years, due to challenges from other Islamic terror groups and isolation from its former patrons in the Muslim world.
“Hamas has been on the brink of collapse,” Jonathan Schanzer, vice president for research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told JNS.org. “It has become very isolated politically and economically.”
“It is very difficult to figure out what Hamas’s calculus is [in its current escalation with Israel],” Schanzer added. “Hamas may have nothing to lose, but on the other hand, they could have really overplayed their hand, which could lead to complete devastation of their assets.”
Since taking control of Gaza in 2007, Hamas has seen a steady decline in its support from the Palestinian people and the rise of other Islamic terrorist groups there—including its main Palestinian rival, Islamic Jihad, as well as al-Qaeda-inspired Salafi global jihadist groups.
In February, leaders of the Salafist factions known as the Al-Quds Mujaedeen Shura Council in Gaza issued a statement pledging allegiance to Islamic State in Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS), which has made global headlines for its brutality and swift victories in the Syrian civil war and Iraq.
These Gaza-based Salafi jihadist groups have often been at odds with Hamas and have been targeted by Hamas’s internal security forces. At the same time, these groups have also been responsible for rocket fire on Israel, both from Gaza and Salafi groups operating in the Sinai Peninsula. This includes rockets fired on the southern Israeli city of Eilat in January 2014.
Meanwhile, recent reports indicate that jihadists from ISIS—now also known simply as “Islamic State”—have attempted to infiltrate Gaza from Egypt, the Gatestone Institute reported.
According to the Egyptian newspaper Al-Masry Al-Youm, 15 ISIS terrorists were arrested by Egyptian security forces trying to enter Gaza from the Sinai. Eyad al-Bazam, a spokesman for Hamas, has flatly denied the reports, calling them “blatant lies” and part of an Egyptian smear campaign against Hamas.
Nevertheless, at a recent funeral for two terrorists killed in late June by the Israel Defense Forces, ISIS flags were seen wrapped over the dead body of one of the terrorists. ISIS flags were also seen during their funeral procession through Gaza.
Rafi Green, head of the Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor for the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), said that although ISIS “has no presence in Gaza as an organized group,” there are “quite a few adherents of radical Salafism in the [Gaza] Strip, who constitute a base of support for ISIS.”
“Radical Salafis in Gaza provide practical services to ISIS, especially moral and media support,” Green told JNS.org. “Media activists in what’s known as ‘the Jerusalemite Support’... help produce and distribute pro-ISIS propaganda and media releases. They have a very active Twitter account that has ten of thousands of followers.”
Like other jihadist groups in Gaza, Hamas sees the presence of ISIS as a direct threat to its rule. Ironically, despite Hamas’s long and bloody history of suicide bombings and rocket attacks against Israeli civilians, the other jihadist groups in the area consider Hamas to be too moderate and believe that more needs to be done to destroy Israel.
Hamas also faces challenges from other rocket-launching Palestinian terror groups such as Islamic Jihad, which has received increased funding from Iran. Aside from that growing internal threat, Hamas is increasingly isolated within the Muslim world.
For many years, Hamas relied on Iran and its partners, Syria and Hezbollah, for military and financial support. All of that changed, however, following the group’s December 2012 fallout with Iran and Syria over the Syrian civil war. Hamas then decided pursue support from Sunni powers such as Turkey, Qatar, and the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, all of which were on the rise at the time.
But since the July 2013 ouster of Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas has found itself in the crosshairs of Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, Egypt’s new president.
El-Sisi has severely cracked down on the Muslim Brotherhood and by extension Hamas, which had tied its fortunes closely with the Brotherhood—its parent group—when the Brotherhood briefly rose to power in Egypt in 2012.
Under El-Sisi, the Egyptian military has embarked on an aggressive campaign—with Israel’s blessing—to eliminate terrorism in the Sinai Peninsula, including destroying Hamas’s smuggling tunnels under the Egypt-Gaza border. Egypt has also kept the border crossing largely closed to regular civilian traffic.
Hamas has lost significant funds from the Egyptian closure of smuggling tunnels, which the Palestinian terror group operated for the dual purpose of revenue as well as the smuggling of rockets and other weapons.
“This time the Egyptians will not help [Hamas] out in this mess,” Schanzer told JNS.org, referring to previous Egypt-brokered ceasefire deals between Israel and Hamas such as the one that ended the November 2012 Israel-Gaza conflict.
For Israel, the rise of global jihadist groups in Gaza and Hamas’s isolation there creates a different set of problems.
“It is a question of whether it is in Israel’s interest to weaken [Hamas] further or even destroy the terror organization,” said Schanzer.
“It is clear that [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu did not want to escalate things with Hamas. With the fallout of the Arab Spring, the rise of ISIS in Iraq and Syria, and the Iranian nuclear program, this was not the right time and Hamas did not pose a strategic threat right now,” he said.
At the same time, if Hamas becomes severely weakened, Salafi jihadist groups or Islamic Jihad may use the opportunity to seize control of Gaza.
“[Israeli operations] might create a vacuum where it can give rise to other jihadi groups who would be worse than Hamas,” Schanzer said.
At this point, Netanyahu and Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon have not indicated that completely destroying Hamas is an objective for Operation Protective Edge. Israel is instead focusing on the immediate threat of ending the rocket attacks, while also approving the call-up of as many as 40,000 reserves in case of a ground operation in Gaza.
Nevertheless, Ya’alon has said this will be a long-term operation, and that Hamas and other terror organizations “will pay a very steep price” for rocket fire on Israel.
“We are destroying arms, terrorist infrastructure, command and control systems, institutions, government buildings, terrorists’ homes, and we are killing terrorists in the organizational high command,” said the defense minister.
In the immediate future, Hamas remains the biggest game in town in Gaza for Israel, given the terror group’s tens of thousands of fighters and a substantial arsenal of rockets capable of striking Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.
“Whether this becomes an all-out war really depends on the amount of rockets fired out of Gaza,” Schanzer said. “It is up to Hamas.”
But in the long run, Hamas’s goals are shared by like-minded terrorist organizations.
“As far as intentions go, Israel is obviously an enemy for all global jihad groups,” MEMRI’s Green told JNS.org. “They all claim to be fighting in order to liberate Islam’s holy sites in Jerusalem and so on. But right now they’re focused on winning the internal battles within the Arab/Muslim world.”
—With reporting by Alina Dain Sharon
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2) US Mid East Envoy: Israel Cruel Occupier, Abbas Man of Peace
Philip Gordon is U.S. Special Assistant to the President and White House Coordinator for the Middle East, North Africa, and the Gulf Region. Gordon was appointed to this position in March of 2013.
In a tongue-lashing directed solely at Israel, Gordon embodied the grotesquely unbalanced position of this U.S. administration, claiming the supporters of terrorism are peaceful, and the supporters of peace are akin to terrorists.
Gordon was speaking at the ill-fated Haaretz Peace Conference. Ill-fated because it was revealed to be both hypocritical and unerringly ill-timed. During the "peace" conference attendees verbally and physically attacked Naftali Bennett, a member of the Israeli Knesset. The tzeva adom rang through the building in Tel Aviv where the conference was held, forcing those present to run and seek shelter in doorways. Some peace conference.
But the speech given by Gordon was astounding in its sole focus on Israel as the party in the conflict which needs to change, Israel as the sole party in the conflict which needs to accommodate, Israel as the sole party in the conflict which needs to grasp the opportunity to make peace with its enemy, "before it is too late."
There was not one sentence in a very lengthy speech which took Abbas to task either for demanding the release of all "political prisoners," i.e. murderers, or for glorifying and providing pensions for genocidal terrorists, or for insisting that its hoped-for future state would be one that practices apartheid and will be judenrein.
The following are only some of the most egregious and aggressively naive comments made by Philip Gordon in Tel Aviv on Tuesday, July 8:
Israel confronts an undeniable reality: it cannot maintain military control of another people indefinitely. Doing so is not only wrong but a recipe for resentment and recurring instability. It will embolden extremists on both sides, tear at Israels democratic fabric, and feed mutual dehumanization.
As the President has said, neither occupation nor expulsion is the answer. Just as Israelis built a state in their homeland, Palestinians have a right to be a sovereign, free, and secure people in their own land.Or to quote one of your own leaders, Ariel Sharon: It is impossible to have a Jewish democratic state, at the same time to control all of Eretz Israel. If we insist on fulfilling the dream in its entirety, we are liable to lose it all.
Reaching a peace agreement with the Palestinians would help turn the tide of international sentiment and sideline violent extremists, further bolstering Israels security. We know all too well the troubles that can arise for Israel internationally when there is no movement on the political track, especially when settlement activity continues to make the potential peace map more difficult and to undermine international support for Israel. On this, I should also be clear of the United States longstanding position: we consider settlements illegitimate and an impediment to progress on peace negotiations. Settlement announcements would be a counter-productive reaction to the kidnapping and murder of the three Israeli teenagers.
Really? How about this undeniable reality: Any Palestinian State will be a racist, terrorist state which will be fully militarized and which will not just "tear at Israel's democratic fabric," but will tear at - perhaps tear apart - Israel completely, which is the goal of most of the leadership of the Palestinian Arabs.
And thanks for that shot about the scariest thing in the Middle East, oh, not ISIS, not masked terrorists who love to plunge their hands into the carved open bodies of dead Jews, and not young adults who revel in sawing off the heads of Jewish infants, no, not those, but the far scarier houses for Israeli families!
Gordon continued:
In contrast, if we fail to come back to peace talks, renewed efforts to isolate Israel internationally and legitimize Palestinian statehood unilaterally are all but certain. The United States will do all it can to fight boycotts and other delegitimization efforts. But in many of these realms, particularly outside the Security Council, our ability to contain the damage is limited, and becoming more and more challenging. This is what American friends of Israel mean when they express concerns about the potential for Israeli isolation if peace talks do not succeed. Let me be absolutely clear that these are not threats. The United States will always have Israels back. Thats why we fight for it every day at the United Nations, where we have worked diligently to ensure Israel is treated fairly and on par with all other states.
But as Israels greatest defender and closest friend we owe it to you to ask fundamental questions which in fact many Israelis are asking themselves: how will Israel remain democratic and Jewish if it attempts to govern the millions of Palestinian Arabs who live in the West Bank? How will it have peace if it is unwilling to delineate a border, end the occupations and allow for Palestinian sovereignty, security, and dignity? How will we prevent other states from isolating Israel or supporting Palestinian efforts in international bodies if Israel is not seen as committed to peace?
As becomes clear from reading Gordon's speech, his information about the Middle East must come from the New York Times or the Guardian. Did you notice that only Israel will be a pariah if the peace talks fail? The Palestinian Arabs, with no obligations, no responsibilities and no punishment if peace doesn't break out, is the pitiable party suffering from occupation and deserving of "sovereignty, security and dignity."
The remaining problematic paragraphs follow. Please note that Gordon takes arrogance to a new level by demanding Israel be prevented from undertaking any steps that are not dictated by the United States, and where the Arab Peace Initiative is portrayed as a great deal for the Jewish State. And Gordon, apparently one not able to omit a single failed policy from his noxious stew of Israeli Insults also slips in that adjective beloved by all haters of Israel: contiguity, and the insistence on the Green Line with land swaps, as the only permissible peace template. How's that for patent support for this devil spawn of a creature, the Palestinian Unity Government?
Given where we find ourselves, it is understandable that some on both sides are looking at other options, some of which were presented at this conference today. But most of these are stop-gaps at best. At worst, they are a recipe for continued or increased conflict or isolation. A one-state solution is implausible, and would effectively mean an end to the Jewish and democratic nature of your state. Unilateral annexation of West Bank territories populated by Israelis is wrong, illegal, and a recipe for Israels isolation. The United States could never support it, and I doubt any of Israels other friends would. Other unilateral or interim measures may appear tempting alternatives, but they do not solve Israels and the Palestinians long-term problems. In fact, they could deepen them. The fact remains, only a negotiated solution two states for two peoples can give Israelis and Palestinians the futures they need and deserve.
Israel should not take for granted the opportunity to negotiate that peace with President Abbas, who has shown time and again that he is committed to nonviolence and coexistence with Israel.
President Obama has articulated his vision for what peace looks like on several occasions. It hasn't changed. But it bears repeating today, and at this forum.
A lasting peace will involve two states for two peoples: Israel as a Jewish state and the homeland for the Jewish people, and the state of Palestine as the homeland for the Palestinian people, each state enjoying self-determination, mutual recognition, and peace. While the core issues of the conflict must be negotiated, the basis of those negotiations is clear: a viable Palestine, a secure Israel.
Negotiations should therefore result in two states, with permanent Palestinian borders with Israel, Jordan, and Egypt, and permanent Israeli borders with Palestine. The borders of Israel and Palestine should be based on the 1967 lines with mutually agreed swaps, so that secure and recognized borders are established for both states. Any peace agreement will require robust security provisions that safeguard Israels security. And the Palestinian people must have the right to govern themselves, and reach their full potential, in an independent, sovereign and contiguous state.
Gordon's presentation was a paean to appeasement and anti-Israel racism. It alone could have triggered the tzeva adom.
About the Author: Lori Lowenthal Marcus is the US correspondent for The Jewish Press. She is a recovered lawyer who previously practiced First Amendment law and taught in Philadelphia-area graduate and law schools.
The Jewish state’s real, behind-the-scenes role.
By P. David Hornik
Israel keeps the peace? That may seem jarring since when Israel gets in the news—as in the current operation against Hamas terror in Gaza—it’s usually in connection to violence more moderate Arab states.
But in reality, as a democratic, Western-aligned country and the Middle East’s preeminent military power, Israel has done much over the decades to keep the region from being worse than it is. Israel has used its might—sometimes openly, sometimes discreetly—not only to safeguard its own interests but also those of the West and the more moderate Arab states.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------3) Islamic State (IS) map of the world: Militants outline chilling five-year plan for global domination as they declare formation of caliphate
Author: John Hall
Source: Atlas Shrugs.
Source: Atlas Shrugs.
ISIS has formally declared the establishment of a caliphate, or Islamic state, in the vast stretches of the Middle East that have fallen under its control, and has outlined a vision to expand into Europe.
The announcement was described as the ‘most significant development in international jihadism since 9/11′.
Upon declaring a caliphate, the Sunni militants – whose brutality in attempting to establish control in Iraq and Syria has been branded too extreme even by Al Qaeda – demanded allegiance from Muslims around the world.
With brutal efficiency, ISIS has carved out a large chunk of territory that has effectively erased the border between Iraq and Syria and laid the foundations of its proto-state.
Caliphate: A map purportedly showing the areas ISIS plans to have under its control within five years has been widely shared online. As well as the Middle East, North Africa and large areas of Asia, it also reveals ISIS’ ambition to extend into Europe. Spain, which was Muslim-ruled until the late 15th Century, would form part of the caliphate, as would the Balkan states and eastern Europe, up to and including Austria.
The announcement, made on the first day of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, could trigger a wave of infighting among Sunni extremist factions that have until now formed a loose rebel alliance.
The announcement, made on the first day of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, could trigger a wave of infighting among Sunni extremist factions that have until now formed a loose rebel alliance.
A spokesman for ISIS declared the group’s chief, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, as the leader of the new caliphate, or Islamic state, and called on Muslims everywhere, not just those in areas under the organization’s control, to swear loyalty to him.
‘The legality of all emirates, groups, states and organizations becomes null by the expansion of the caliph’s authority and the arrival of its troops to their areas,’ said Abu Mohammed al-Adnani.
‘Listen to your caliph and obey him. Support your state, which grows every day,’ he added in an audio statement posted online.
Charles Lister, a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution, said the announcement was likely the ‘most significant development in international jihadism since 9/11′.
Al-Adnani loosely defined the state territory as running from northern Syria to the Iraqi province of Diyala – a vast stretch of land straddling the border that is already largely under ISIS control.
He also said that with the establishment of the caliphate, the group was changing its name to just the Islamic State, dropping the mention of Iraq, Sham and the Levant.
However, in a map widely-shared by ISIS supporters on social networks, the Islamist group outlined a five-year plan for how they would like to expand their boundaries beyond Muslim-majority countries.
As well as plans to expand the caliphate throughout the Middle East, North Africa, and large parts of western Asia, the map also marks out an expansion in parts of Europe.
Spain, which was ruled by Muslims for 700 years until 1492, is marked out as a territory the caliphate plans to have under its control by 2020.
Elsewhere, ISIS plans to take control of the the Balkan states – including Greece, Romania and Bulgaria – extending its territories in eastern Europe as far as Austria, which appears to be based on a pre-First World War borders of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
ISIS regularly makes statements and releases propaganda calling for the return of the geographical boundaries in place before the Great War.
The group insist the carving up of the Ottoman Empire by Allied forces after the conflict – commonly known as the Sykes-Picot Agreement – was a deliberate attempt to divide Muslims and restrict the likelihood of another caliphate being established.
Muslim extremists have long dreamed of recreating the Islamic state, or caliphate, that ruled over the Middle East, North Africa and beyond in various forms over the course of Islam’s 1,400-year history.
Author: Sean Savage
Caption: An Israeli border policeman patrols the area of the Judean desert, near the Jordan border. After swift victories in Iraq, the Islamic State in Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) terrorist group is also setting its sights on Jordan, threatening to drag Israel into the global jihadist conflict. (Credit: Nati Shohat/Flash90).
Caption: An Israeli border policeman patrols the area of the Judean desert, near the Jordan border. After swift victories in Iraq, the Islamic State in Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) terrorist group is also setting its sights on Jordan, threatening to drag Israel into the global jihadist conflict. (Credit: Nati Shohat/Flash90).
Emerging from the chaos of the Syrian civil war, the Islamic State in Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) terrorist group has gained the world’s attention for its brutal medieval-style Islamic justice and its swift victories in Iraq, threatening to overrun the weak U.S.-backed government there. But now ISIS is also setting its sights on Jordan, threatening to drag Israel into the global jihadist conflict.
“They are a vicious and brutal group, and have even done some things that al-Qaeda thought were unwise,” Elliot Abrams, who served as deputy national security advisor for former President George W. Bush and is currently a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, told JNS.org.
“More people, more money, and more guns. They do constitute a real threat,” Abrams said.
The goals of ISIS are clear from its name. Alternatively translated as the Islamic State in Iraq and al-Sham—the Arabic name for the Levant region—or the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), the group seeks to control the entire region, which in addition to Iraq and Syria includes Jordan, Lebanon, and even Israel and the Palestinian territories.
ISIS has origins in the various different al-Qaeda-affiliated Sunni jihadists groups that have been active in the region for most of the past decade, including the infamous al-Qaeda in Iraq, led by former Jordanian-born terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who was killed in a U.S. airstrike in 2006 during the Iraq War.
As the Syrian civil war has dragged on since 2011, ISIS and other al-Qaeda-influenced jihadist have been able to bolster themselves through ransom, extortion, and oil revenue, while simultaneously attracting fighters from across the world.
Amid its swift victories in large swaths of Iraq, ISIS has also set its sights on nearby Jordan, which is ruled by the moderate pro-Western King Abdullah. ISIS terrorists consider Abdullah an enemy of Islam and an infidel, and have publicly called for his execution. A recent video posted by ISIS threatened to “slaughter” the king and called him a “tyrant.”
“It is in the West’s and Israel’s best interest to put a stop to ISIS’s advancement,” Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Major General (ret.) Israel Ziv told JNS.org.
Yet ISIS’s rapid progress through Iraq can be deceiving. While the terror group has been noted for its success in conquering Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, and for threatening Baghdad, it has also faced a weak enemy so far.
“It’s true they have done better than anybody expected in Iraq. But it’s not that they have done things brilliantly, it’s just that the Iraqi army has totally collapsed,” Abrams said, noting that the Jordanian and Israeli militaries, by contrast, are “hard targets and they certainly know how to fight.”
Recent reports indicate that Jordan and Israel are taking the jihadist threat seriously and have stepped up cooperation on the issue. Unlike most Arab states, Jordan has a peace treaty with Israel, and as U.S. allies, the nations’ governments and militaries maintain relatively close ties.
“There is a very good cooperation between us regarding ISIS’s growing presence in Iraq and Syria, but also on issues relating to other radical forces in the Middle East which have their sights set on Israel and Jordan,” a Jordanian diplomatic source told Yedioth Ahronoth.
ISIS, meanwhile, is seeking to establish a new Islamic Caliphate and modern-day borders that were largely established by European powers more than a century ago are irrelevant to the jihadist group.
“We don’t recognize borders,” an ISIS fighter from the United Kingdom said in a recently released propaganda video, adding that he has fought in Syria and will go “wherever our leader sends us,” including Lebanon, Jordan, and beyond.
Reports indicate that ISIS terrorists, with the support of Sunni tribal rebels in Iraq, have taken over the only official border crossing with Jordan, at Tirbil, as well as a number of Iraqi towns near the border. In response, Jordan announced that it has significantly beefed up its military presence along the 112-mile-long border, which is largely barren desert.
David Schenker, director of the program on Arab politics at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, told JNS.org that he doesn’t think ISIS would be a match for Jordan’s militarily.
“Jordan has an advanced modern military with fighter jets, tanks, [and] well-trained and motivated troops,” he said. “I don’t think Jordan’s military would have a problem fighting ISIS on the border.”
At the same time, ISIS may also risk stretching its limits as a terrorist organization too far.
“If they continue to stretch themselves to a bigger area, then they will need to set up logistics, supply lines, training camps,” said Maj. Gen. Ziv, who played a role in founding the IDF’s Academy of Tactical Command. “They will need to act like an ordinary army.”
“This would expose them more and make them vulnerable to being re-attacked,” he added. “They will lose the hidden or surprise element of a terrorist organization.”
Despite ISIS’s potential weaknesses going up against the Western-backed Jordanian or Israeli militaries, jihadist groups do pose a significant long-term regional threat as the Middle East continues to destabilize from the Syrian civil war.
“The more inroads ISIS makes in Iraq, Syria, and in the region, there will be more who sympathize with their cause,” said Schenker.
At the same time, Jordan is facing an increasing internal threat from terrorists returning to the country. It is estimated that nearly 2,000 Jordanians are fighting in the Syrian conflict.
“We shouldn’t be naïve, they are not returning to Jordan to retire,” Ziv said. “Their goal is to reproduce al-Qaeda in Jordan.”
For Jordan, the problem is even more acute due to the large border it shares with Syria and Iraq as well as the huge Syrian refugee population the country is hosting. According to the United Nations, there are nearly 650,000 registered Syrian refugees in Jordan, with other estimates approaching close to a million. This costs the Jordanian economy billions a year.
In response to this threat, Jordan’s parliament recently passed an amendment to its 2006 anti-terror bill that will give security forces the power to detain and try citizens suspected of belonging to terror groups.
“The Jordan has excellent intelligence services, but it’s not going to be 100 percent,” Schenker said.
But the threat of battle-hardened jihadists returning home is not only a problem for Jordan. Many Middle Eastern countries, including Israel, have to contend with citizens who have joined jihadists groups in Syria. At the same time, it is estimated that there are up to 3,000 Westerners, including U.S. citizens, who are fighting in Syria and Iraq for these jihadist groups. There is a “virtual United Nations” fighting in Syria, said Abrams.
“The fundamental problem is how do you [as a government] prevent recruiting?” he said.
Jordan has also allied itself closely with the U.S. on counter-terrorism training. The Central Intelligence Agency, for instance, trains Syriam rebels in Jordan. President Barack Obama also announced June 25 that he would provide $500 million for advanced military training and support for Syria’s moderate opposition.
But Abrams believes the U.S. needs to do more to support its allies in the region and get Syria under control.
“We made a huge mistake in being so slow in helping the Syrian rebels,” he said. “And now with the Sunni groups in Iraq, we should be going back to them to offer them help. We should be talking to our allies in Turkey, Israel, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia.”
Israeli Deputy Defense Minister Danny Danon, however, stressed that the U.S. should proceed with caution regarding its involvement in internal Middle East affairs. Israel, he said, treads a neutral path on the conflicts in Syria and Iraq.
“Our region is complex. … We (Israel) don’t take sides on this issue,” Danon told JNS.org. “The only thing we do is, we tell our friends in the U.S., ‘Be careful with the alliances you are making today, because they can be used against you.’”
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