Breaking up Syria Israel’s ultimate objective: Pundit

Press TV has talked to Anthony Hall, a professor at Lethbridge University, about Israeli warplanes targeting Syrian government artillery positions in the Golan Heights.

Here is a rough transcription of the interview:

Press TV: Why is Tel Aviv adding to the problem in Syria rather than offering a solution, while its closest ally there - Washington - has spent the better part of this year trying to hammer out a peace deal?

Hall: Jabhat al-Nusra, which has now rebranded itself as Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, [is] trying to distance [itself], understanding that al-Qaeda was blamed for 9/11. Israel is using Jihadism, using proxy armies fighting under Islamic flags. It seems this understanding that is developing between Russia and the United States is that Assad … seems being, to some extent, embraced and given a green light to go ahead and defend Syria, the Syrian people and government against the Israeli-backed Jihadists.

And so this defense of Syria has resulted in Syria knocking down an Israeli - although it is US machinery - jet and a drone. Of course Israel is denying this, but that is often the case. So this is a potential game changer. This is a real pivot taking place where the Syrian government is defending Syria by shooting down an IDF plane. This suggests a major adjustment that perhaps the United States, in partnership with Russia, is somewhat backing away from this Oded Yinon Plan of destabilizing and breaking up Syria and balkanizing the region.

Assad is in a unique position to hold together the variety of constituencies that compose the Syrian nation and perhaps sanity is prevailing. This is a historic occasion where the Syrian Air Force, with a surface-to-air missile, knocks down an IDF plane and a drone.

Press TV: There has been fire going astray - most of these cases coming somewhat from Syria - ending up in open areas in the Golan Heights. No one can ascertain where or who the firing came from on the Syrian side. But Tel Aviv has responded every time by directly targeting Syrian tanks and/or equipment. It is almost like they are trying to provoke the Syrians. Are they trying to forcibly interject into the Syria crisis?  

Hall: They have been interjected all along. Two-thousand al-Nusra Front soldiers have been extended medical care in Israel. It is a matter of record. Al-Nusra, which is sometimes referred to as al-Qaeda in Levant, has now changed its name but not its close associations with Israel. Israel [is] backing Jihadist proxy armies, fighting under Islamic flags but doing the work of the Jewish state and the quest for greater Israel and destabilizing not only the Middle East, but Europe through this engineered migrant crisis. It is very clear that this new campaign start[ed] on 9/11 where al-Qaeda was blamed. Well now al-Qaeda is very clearly with Israel and it seems that other superpowers may be backing away from this Israeli al-Qaeda alliance which is very much on public display.

Press TV: Israel is provoking the Syrian government. It is at the same time supporting this al-Nusra Front. What is its ultimate objective?  

Hall: Its ultimate objective is to break up and destabilize Syria which has been a fairly stable country. The Assad government has provided a kind of leadership that is acceptable and able to lead to a compromise between a very pluralistic diverse society of the Syrian people. There is still a great deal of support for Bashar al-Assad.

His trip to Darayya is very much sending a signal that we are taking the land back from the Israeli-backed terrorist forces. It could be that there is a superpower accommodation that is not going to be in Israel’s favor. And this IDF mobilization to back al-Nusra is an effort to sort of keep the morale up, as it seems that perhaps the US is backing away from support of the Jihadists trying to overthrow the government of Assad.

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