JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel’s defense minister said on Tuesday President Bashar al-Assad was winning Syria’s civil war and urged the United States to weigh in as Damascus’s Iranian and Hezbollah allies gain ground.

Avigdor Lieberman’s comments marked a reversal for Israel, where top officials had from the outset of fighting in 2011 until mid-2015 regularly predicted Assad would lose control of his country and be toppled.

Arjan Dirkse wrote:ISIS never defined Israel as their foremost enemy. Their biggest enemies are actually what they see as apostate Muslims. First and foremost Iraqi and Iranian shia, and regimes like the Saudi monarchy and Assad, Sissi in Egypt, actually the leadership in all Muslim countries. Israel is a lesser target.

aban57 wrote:

Arjan Dirkse wrote:ISIS never defined Israel as their foremost enemy. Their biggest enemies are actually what they see as apostate Muslims. First and foremost Iraqi and Iranian shia, and regimes like the Saudi monarchy and Assad, Sissi in Egypt, actually the leadership in all Muslim countries. Israel is a lesser target.

ISIS' purpose is not the destruction of Israel, as it can be for some (political or not) muslim mouvements. It's the establishment of a califate covering the middle east, western Asia, northern Africa and Spain. Pretty much any territory that once belonged to a muslim country. They don't really care about whoever is living there now. They're all heathens anyways.

The_Metatron wrote:
Cedric, can you give us a source for that graphic?


Sent from my completely solar powered iPad using Tapatalk

Plainly, Syria’s success – notwithstanding the caution of President Bashar al-Assad in saying that signs of success are not success itself – in resisting, against the odds, all attempts to fell the state suggest that a tipping point in the geopolitics of the region has occurred.

We have written before how the Syria outcome dwarfs that of Israel’s 2006 war against Hezbollah, significant though the result of that war was, too.

Both events taken together have brought America’s unipolar moment in the Middle East to an end (though not globally, since the U.S. still retains its necklace of military bases across the region). The successes have corroded badly the reputation of the Gulf States and have discredited fired-up Sunni jihadism as a “go-to” political tool for Saudi Arabia and its Western backers.

But, aside from the geopolitics, the Syria outcome has created a physical connectivity and contiguity that has not existed for some years: the border between Iraq and Iran is open; the border between Syria and Iraq is opening; and the border between Lebanon and Syria, too, is open. This constitutes a critical mass both of land, resources and population of real weight.

The region will listen intently to what these victors will have to say about their future vision for the region – and for Islam. In particular, how Syria articulates the lessons for Middle Eastern societies in light of its war experience will have a profound import.

https://consortiumnews.com/2017/09/30/h ... s-mideast/

aliihsanasl wrote:A Sunni and jihadist group's being that silent against the number one ally of USA in the region when their objective is to fight against American interests isn't possible to explain with any logic.

Political developments in Turkey prove that Israel is very angry with Sunni Erdogan's and Shia Iran's alliance in their economical and political interests.

I don't feel that USA is honest about not recognizing the Kurdish referendum in Northern Iraq such a puppet second Jewish state would help their foreign policy goals a lot but why EU didn't recognize it is a dilemma for me. Both USA and EU were arming Kurds prior to referendum.

In my opinion in the following months more and more violence in Syria will fade away and Turkey's turn will come in the USA project.

Warren Dew wrote:

aliihsanasl wrote:A Sunni and jihadist group's being that silent against the number one ally of USA in the region when their objective is to fight against American interests isn't possible to explain with any logic.

Political developments in Turkey prove that Israel is very angry with Sunni Erdogan's and Shia Iran's alliance in their economical and political interests.

I don't feel that USA is honest about not recognizing the Kurdish referendum in Northern Iraq such a puppet second Jewish state would help their foreign policy goals a lot but why EU didn't recognize it is a dilemma for me. Both USA and EU were arming Kurds prior to referendum.

In my opinion in the following months more and more violence in Syria will fade away and Turkey's turn will come in the USA project.

I don't think the Islamic State's objective was to fight against US interests. Al Qaeda yes, the Islamic State no.

The US needs the Syrian Kurds to establish a state and to recognize them.

I think nothing can infuriate Erdogan more than the existence of a Kurd state.

mrjonno wrote:

I think nothing can infuriate Erdogan more than the existence of a Kurd state.

And this is a bad thing because?, Erdogan is just below North Korea and ISIS on the international bad guys list these days

aliihsanasl wrote:A Sunni and jihadist group's being that silent against the number one ally of USA in the region when their objective is to fight against American interests isn't possible to explain with any logic.

WayOfTheDodo wrote:

aliihsanasl wrote:A Sunni and jihadist group's being that silent against the number one ally of USA in the region when their objective is to fight against American interests isn't possible to explain with any logic.

What are you talking about? ISIS' objective is to establish a world-wide caliphate. They choose the easy targets - places where there is chaos and a power vacuum.

Israel most definitely does not have chaos and a power vacuum. It has working and experienced military forces, modern equipment, etc. ISIS trying to invade Israel at this point would be utter stupidity.

aliihsanasl wrote:

WayOfTheDodo wrote:

aliihsanasl wrote:A Sunni and jihadist group's being that silent against the number one ally of USA in the region when their objective is to fight against American interests isn't possible to explain with any logic.

What are you talking about? ISIS' objective is to establish a world-wide caliphate. They choose the easy targets - places where there is chaos and a power vacuum.

Israel most definitely does not have chaos and a power vacuum. It has working and experienced military forces, modern equipment, etc. ISIS trying to invade Israel at this point would be utter stupidity.

Alright then explain us why they perform violent terrorist attacks in EU and USA, is there choas and power vacuum in France, Spain, Germany, England or USA ?

Warren Dew wrote:

aliihsanasl wrote:

WayOfTheDodo wrote:

aliihsanasl wrote:A Sunni and jihadist group's being that silent against the number one ally of USA in the region when their objective is to fight against American interests isn't possible to explain with any logic.

What are you talking about? ISIS' objective is to establish a world-wide caliphate. They choose the easy targets - places where there is chaos and a power vacuum.

Israel most definitely does not have chaos and a power vacuum. It has working and experienced military forces, modern equipment, etc. ISIS trying to invade Israel at this point would be utter stupidity.

Alright then explain us why they perform violent terrorist attacks in EU and USA, is there choas and power vacuum in France, Spain, Germany, England or USA ?

Recruitment. The Islamic State recruited from extreme fundamentalist muslims who were ready to be convinced to join a fight to reestablish the caliphate. Attacks in the EU and the US projected a worldwide reach that suggested that the Islamic State, as opposed to some other state like for example Turkey, was on track to reestablish the caliphate. The recruits would then travel to the middle east to fight with the Islamic State's core.

aliihsanasl wrote:

That doesn't make sense to me, in order to be Islamic caliph you have to be recognized by religious representatives of each Muslim state.