Israel seeks to inflame tensions in Mideast: Kevin Barrett

Press TV has conducted an interview with Kevin Barrett, an author and Middle East expert in Madison, to discuss the latest Israeli air strikes on Syria.

Following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: What exactly is the Israeli game plan vis-à-vis Syria? It seems that it just cannot stop attacking it.

Barrett: That is right and I think there may be a political motive to this latest round of attacks from Israel. The western media, which usually gives Israel a free pass in almost everything it does, was actually a bit skeptical about the latest Israeli announcements concerning these attacks on Syria. The Guardian…pointed out that there was confusion over who is to blame, and that apparently Israel could not keep its story straight about who it was targeting and who it was killing. The Guardian story [splits] with Israeli defense sources initially blamed Islamic Jihad before switching to Iran’s Quds Force and then blaming the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad.

So essentially the Israelis just blew up a car presumably with the innocent people inside and then made up stories about how these various enemies were to blame, switching their story constantly. And… what this is really about is that Israel is seeking to inflame tensions with Iran above all as well as with the rest of the axis of resistance because Prime Minister Netanyahu and his neoconservative minions are so unhappy with the nuclear deal, which is really a deal for the West to accept the Islamic Republic of Iran as an equal and as a member of their version of the world community.  

Netanyahu does not like this. He is trying to start tensions by attacking Syria, but this is going to backfire because all it does it shows that Israel is on the same side as Islamic State or Daesh, ISIS, ISIL, whatever you want to call them. Israel and these extremist Takfiri militants, who have been destabilizing Syria are on the same side. and the more that message gets out the worse it will be for the Israelis.  

Press TV: As you said, this will backfire on Israel, how much worse are things about to get for the Israeli regime do you think?  

Barrett: They are increasingly isolated and voices inside Israel are admitting that Israel is isolated but the Israelis, as a group, have brought this on themselves. All of the polls have showed massive support by Jewish Israelis for the attacks on Gaza that had alienated the entire world and just as the entire world has always accepted consensus position in trying UN resolutions that Israel must withdraw from all territories illegally occupied after the war of aggression in 1967. So the world is coming to realize that the prime human rights violations of the vast majority of the human rights violations in the conflict in occupied Palestine are being committed by the Israelis. So they backed themselves into a corner and it is not clear how they are going to get out.

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