Think of that next time the left charges that Israel doesn't want peace

The United States has never "protected" Israel. Israel has never asked the United States for "protection." How effective will those "cheap, reasonably accurate missiles" fired, say, from Lebanon, be once Israel obliterates most of Lebanon?

what keeps israel strong- the day when they can sleep without worry is the day they'll get up to tradgedy.it's all too bad, but the jews servive best when pushed against the wall. p.s. i do enjoy your commentaries

Everything in this article is right on, other than the dumb allegation of the US or Turkey killing the generals for revenge of the downed planes... but otherwise, yes, Israel is now in a "Muslim Brotherhood Vise" and as you can see the stupid EU still lives in the past and is asking Israel to withdraw ...

It's called "who is your worst enemy". In one corner there is the Iranian axis that is surrounding Israel with missiles (and worse). In the other corner are the Islamo-fascists and Al Qaeda who will blow up anyone, anywhere, anytime if it could damage the State of Israel. But here's the hard part, there is no winner in this game, because each side is equally vile and hateful. The so-called stability Assad was offering was no more than a an effort to buy time to put into place the weaponry and personnel for Israel's destruction. In other words, it's a push, and Israel will just have to have a different plan for different outcomes.

The more they off themselves the less we will have to deal with in the future. They will always be our enemy were only one of them still standing.

Imagine a similar tragedy in Mexico... gangs killing and raping innocent people (ops... its happening). The US is ONLY interested in the ramification of Mexico instability on the US. Russia, China and Europe always promote their own interest over anyone else. The idea that Israel should be judged by a different set of standards is the essence of discrimination.

the "arab street" is a fantasy - there are NO democracies in the arab world. once the dust settles, there will be another autocrat to replace the previous one. what is troubling is not that the peasants rose up, but that america acted against its own interests, either through naivete (hopefully) or incompetence (likely) or possibly a hidden agenda to support the islamofascist movement. but make no mistake, the moslem brotherhood will not rule with democratic support, but in spite of it. and the point of this article is that the cia is again unable to provide timely intelligence or operational capability to support america's interests. the "syria situation" has been going for more than 18 months.

Excellent post, but I think it is worse than you think. Obama could have neutralized the Iranian threat to America by supporting the Green Revolution. Instead, Obama decided to support Ahmadinejad while attacking Israel. Now that even Obama realizes that Iran is dangerous to America, thousands will die.

There was no "green revolution" in Iran, just a very miniscule number of media savvy, English speaking people that had no popular support. There was nothing for the US to support because the very small number of people you saw on western TV had no way to change the government. The reality that Israelis can not seem to grasp is a MAJORITY of the people in Iran (40 million plus) are OK with the existing government and in fact would kill anyone that tried to install a western-friendly government because they are still very, very bitter about how the Brits and the US have badly mistreated them for over 100 years. All your "wishes" for an Israeli-friendly ME are a tragic delusion. The BEST Israel can do is be tolerated, but to do that Israel will have to make MAJOR changes in its attitude towards its neighbors. You could start by facing the reality about Israel's past. BTW - Obama just wants to avoid a stupid, losing war in the ME because the US can not afford it, emotionally or financially.

assad needs to stay in power and eliminate the rebels at least with assad israel knows who they are dealing with. the rebels are only going to radicalize the country and then we will really be surrounded by islamist radicals. with assad in power there hasnt been a single round fired for the past 30 years thats good enough for me. with assad a relative future peace could be achieved but with the radicals nothing . if these islamists win then we are in for a tough scenario from all of our borders and thats not good

the smartest thing israel (we) can do if we find the opportunity, (if assad falls and before a new regime arises), would be to eliminate the chemical and biological weapons arsenal. the actual bombing [of it] is close to us and we can do it quickly; we surely can justify [it] politically in the international arena; it would remove the most real and dangerous, current threat to us. afterwards, we would only need to worry about iran. our northern flank would be (relatively) clean.

Without the Golan there might not be an Israel. If we gave back the Golan ten years ago which is what the left wing wanted then, they would be Crying for there mothers today. But i dont expect someone from the netherlands to understand this.

You state: " The states who offer financial and military support to the rebels have no idea who they’re supporting." Really? How naive of you to assume that! These "states" include the Obama administration which provides political support, Turkey which provides logistic and political support, and S.Arabia and Qatar that provide the funding and arms for the Jihadist fighters. What is the ultimate objective of the above alliance? Just likein Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, they are aiming at nothing less than a Radical Islamist regime under Muslim Brotherhood domination! To deny their true objective and pretend that these countries don't know what they are doing, would be an insult to their pan-Islamist zeal as well as to our intelligence!

First, there's no longer an hostile superpower (like the old USSR in the 50s-80s) supporting the enemy and giving it weapons for free. Second, the enemy's economic performance has crashed and is getting worse and worse. Arab government are going to be very busy merely trying to stabilize. Lastly, yes, weapons have gotten more deadly, but this is true for all sides. Israel has more than enough weapons to annihilate its enemies if they go too far. I can't see why MAD (at the worse case) can't work here, especially as Israel's capabilities are far superiour. In short, the better question is whether the Arabs can abandon their self-destructive hatred which harms them far more than it does Israel. I suspect the answer is no, but Israel will do fine nevertheless.

While one should not underestimate the threat of a radical "brotherhood" encirclement of Israel, that chance of occurrence is no certainty from any perspective. First, the Saudi's have a big stake in the future of Syria, they are an Iranian enemy and the main target (yes even more than Israel) of Al Qaeda. Second, look at the events in Egypt and try to estimate how long the tenuous hold on power the "brotherhood" has to go, given their total unlikelihood of improving economic conditions, while the military powers stay hot on their heels. Sorry, you do not win the game.The Mideast miasma is still stuck in neutral, and from Israels perspective, none of their enemies look better or worse than the other. But of course, I expect the Israelis to handle any scenario that arises from their neighbors turmoil.

1. If there was no green revolution in Iran, how do you account for the fact that the Revolutionary Guard had to be deployed to put down the huge waves of protest following the election? 2. If the majority of the people in Iran are okay with the existing government, how do you account for the fact that Ahmedinejad had to fudge the results in order to barely squeak by in the popular election? 3. Most people alive in Iran today weren't born at the time of 1979 Islamic revolution that deposed the Shah. Most of the ones that would have remembered the Shah, and the way he tried to push Iran into the modern era, were killed by the Islamist regime. Any hopes for a moderate Islamic Republic were dashed when Bani-Sadr had to flee for his life and Gotzbadeh was executed. Do you truly mean to suggest that the Iranian people are so primitive that they want a regime that lashes people before hanging them from jib cranes, lops off arms, and stones people to death? If that is the case, we would be doing you a favor by destroying Iran. In case you haven't noticed, this is the 21st century, not the seventh. 4. Israel has no desire for improved relations with Iran. And don't look for improved relations with our neighbors. We don't think much of any of you. 5. Any war involving the United States and Iran or, for that matter, Israel and Iran, will be a fairly short one. Any war involving Iran AND Israel/United States will be an extremely short one. The European Union is about out of patience with Iran as well. Most of the world has grown sick and tired of the sturm-und-drang rhetoric out of Teheran threatening the destruction of Israel, making threatening noises against United States and European interests, Iran's constant attempts to destabilize Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states, Iran's unconscionable meddling in Syria and its sponsorship of terror on a global basis. Iran's days are numbered. If you don't see that, it's time for you to get some new spy equipment. I'm sure you can find a spiffy new special magic decoder ring in any box of children's cereal.

Israel is no more threatened now that it has been for the last 64 years. Every Arab country would like to have seen Israel destroyed but they couldn't do it and they have even less capability of doing it now than they did then. Israel is stronger, Syria is in a state of civil war and Egypt is not far from it. This article is just a manufactured one.

More like Arab states becoming more democratic while the apartheid state becomes more isolated. Hiding behind your walls on stolen land.

Good sounds like Israel will be even more isolated. End your apartheid before complaining about your neighbors.

What's the time here? ...er... 12:40pm CET Caught up with your post #47 and it's made my day....already! ; )

Your brain has been flooded with the excessive milk production !

26. Israel has been surrounded by radical elements since 1948! What did they expect when they barged into and displaced and killed millions of the indigenous population....all because of some corrupt Jews and a "religious text"??

After Egypt and Libiya now Syria, it's too suspicious. I always found it strange that Britain and France were so eager to go to war with Libiya. Now they support those so-called 'rebels', not only with weapons (Turkey) but also they try to convince the people of Europe that the 'rebels' are 'good' and want 'democracy' and 'peace'. Those moslim fundamentalists never want peace... the only thing they know is hatred.

This is what i'm talking about, all western media try to let the people believe that all those 'rebels' want democracy... this is a lie.

The Beast is almost complete with its now 6 heads. Syria the seventh head is coming into the big picture. Once Assad is done with, the MB is complete and the planning to attack Israel begins.

Ron Ben Yishai's op-ed from all the way back to July. His and many other people's opinion. They actually thought that Assad's days are numbered. Well, good morning, November 2012.