Turkey's Instigations and Return Of the Fallen Keeping Mossad Busy

 Nadene Goldfoot                                                   

     Tourist Guides in Idlib Province, Syria, July 9, 2026

Early on Tuesday, August 18, 2026, air strikes hit the runway and storage facilities at the Abu al-Duhur military airport in Syria's northwestern Idlib province. 

 Syria's state media and military sources blamed Israel for the attack.     

Yes, Overnight, Israeli jets struck the Abu al-Duhur military airport in the eastern countryside of Idlib, Syria. According to the Sabereen news agency, runways and storage facilities were targeted by four aircraft.

Sabereen News is an influential digital media channel and Telegram-based network launched in Iraq around 2020. It acts as a mouthpiece and propaganda arm for pro-Iranian militia groups and the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU).

 It is one of the largest and most prominent military bases in northern Syria. There were reportedly no casualties.

              TURKEY'S INVOLVEMENT

 Prime Minister Netanyahu's office issued a  

statement saying: "Israel and Syria agreed on a 

status quo in security matters, which Syria almost 

violated by allowing Turkish soldiers to deploy at 

the air force base near Aleppo. 

To deploy at an airport means to send or position personnel, 

equipment, or technology into an airport facility to perform a 

specific, active operational duty. This can refer to moving 

military troops through a transport hub, sending federal law 

enforcement or security agents to assist with checkpoint 

lines, or installing new air traffic systems.

Israel has repeatedly warned Syria that such a deployment would pose a threat to Israel's security - and Syria has chosen to ignore the warnings.

 Israel will not tolerate threats to its security, and will welcome a return to the status quo." 

US Ambassador to Turkey and the Trump administration's special envoy to Syria, Tom Barrack, said that the strike “carried a real risk of rapid escalation into a direct military confrontation between Israel and Turkey as well as Syria.”

The base was being reconstructed with significant Turkish assistance, and Israel was concerned about them being used and about the possible deployment of air defense systems that could threaten Israel’s control of the airspace, as well as advanced drones.

 A Turkish delegation visited the base only recently. 

Israel has previously conveyed messages to Turkey that it would not accept the rebuilding of the Syrian military or any threat to its air superiority.

 Israel struck the same airfield in April, 2025.In April 2025, Israel launched airstrikes targeting the T4 military airbase (Tiyas) in Syria's Homs province. The strikes occurred amid moves by Turkey to expand its military and aerial presence in the area following the fall of the Bashar al-Assad regime.

Mossad is  (the Institute for Intelligence and Special Operations) functions as Israel's primary foreign intelligence agency, making it roughly equivalent to the United States' CIA. One core job of the CIA is to collect, analyze, and evaluate foreign intelligence to protect national security and they keep a watch on Gaza. It's amazing to me that Hamas terrorists are always trying to fool Israel but fail,  I hope at least 95% of the time.  

The IDF carried out an airstrike against several Hamas commanders in the Shati area near Gaza City’s port, who were planning attacks against Israeli forces. The IDF said measures were taken before the strike to reduce harm to civilians, including the use of precise munitions and aerial surveillance.

On another sadder note, the IDF confirmed Tuesday that the remains of Staff Sgt. Yehuda Yekutiel Katz, an armored corps soldier who had been missing since the Battle of Sultan Yacoub in the First Lebanon War 44 years ago, were returned to Israel and formally identified.  Israeli leaders hailed the country’s commitment to bring back every missing or fallen soldier.

The battle, 44 years ago, was a skirmish between the Israel Defense Forces and the Syrian army in Lebanon’s Beqaa Valley. It claimed the lives of 21 Israeli servicemen and injured more than 30.

Katz, a tank soldier, went missing during the battle, along with Sgt. First Class Zachary Baumel and Sgt. First Class Zvi Feldman. Sheba's Humanitarian Missions .

Keep WatchingThe IDF said his remains were located in an operation led by Military Intelligence (MID)  and conducted jointly with the Mossad. Katz’s return completes the recovery of all Israeli soldiers who had also remained missing from the Battle of Sultan Yacoub.  

                                              

                             Staff Sgt. Yehuda Yekutiel Katz, from the

                                 Battle of Sultan Yacoub.  

Another IDF, Staff Sgt. Zachary Baumel’s remains were returned to Israel in 2019 from the Battle of Sultan Yacoub.                       

A third, Staff Sgt. Tzvi Feldman was returned in 2025, lost to us also in the Battle of Sultan Yacoub. 

 Tzvi Feldman was returned in 2025.

Friend Oman and Iran, A Twosome Alerting Trump To Be On Guard Over Strait of Hormuz

 Nadene Goldfoot                                              

President Donald Trump threatened Oman—a long-standing U.S. ally in the Middle East—stating that the U.S. would use military force if the Gulf nation "gets in the way" of American positions regarding the Strait of Hormuz.   Oman's friendship with the United States officially began in 1833, when the two nations signed a Treaty of Amity and Commerce. This made Oman one of the very first Arab nations to formally recognize and build diplomatic ties with the United States.

Strait Control: Tensions rose as Oman engaged in discussions with Iran regarding shipping and security arrangements in the strategic waterway. 

Iranian leaders are claiming sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz and seeking permanent control of maritime traffic through it. This demand marks a significant expansion of Iranian war aims beyond just survival and denying the United States and its partners the accomplishment of their own objectives. Iran is now positioning itself to emerge from the war in a stronger strategic position, with veto power over who can access one of the most critical maritime chokepoints in the world. This arrangement would severely undermine the US position in the Middle East and jeopardize the security of US allies and partners globally, including those in Europe and the Indo-Pacific.Washington and its friends—from Europe to the Indo-Pacific—have a vital interest in securing the Strait of Hormuz and preventing Iran from holding hostage a critical artery of global trade. This reality holds regardless of how one feels about the war or the wisdom of launching it in the first place. The vital national interests of the United States and all its allies and partners, and of many neutral countries as well, require making securing full freedom of navigation through the strait a non-negotiable condition for ending the current war.

On Monday, as Iranian officials said they were close to announcing an agreement with Oman, a 60-day Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Washington and Tehran – which had provided for a period of peace talks but largely fell apart early on – expired with little hope for renewal.  This is not the first time Trump has threatened Oman, a US ally which has never entered into any direct conflict with the US.   Oman, through whose territorial waters the contested Strait of Hormuz also flows, has positioned itself as a neutral party in the US-Iran war. Despite that, it has suffered a number of strikes by Iran, which has targeted US military assets and infrastructure around the region in retaliation for US-Israeli attacks. As part of regional escalations and maritime disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz, Iranian strikes and projectile attacks have targeted multiple ports, industrial zones, and commercial or military-linked infrastructure sites in Oman and its territorial waters.

U.S. Stance: The Trump administration insists the Strait of Hormuz must remain open international waters under broader U.S. oversight, rejecting joint regional management or fees. 

Diplomatic Fallout: The threats coincided with the expiration of a 60-day window for broader U.S.-Iran peace negotiations.

Now, The United Arab Emirates said Tuesday (Today) that two ballistic missiles launched from Iran triggered missile alerts across the country, with both ultimately landing in the water. The Emirati Defense Ministry said its air defense systems detected the two missiles after warning sirens were activated and residents received alerts on their mobile phones.

William N. Robinson

William N. Robinson is a political analyst who is evidently against Israel, researcher, and consultant specializing in security, governance and political economy. He works with a Horn of Africa‑based war and human rights monitoring organization and holds research fellowships with policy institutes in the Middle East and New Zealand. Find him on Twitter/X @wrobinsonnz. He writes that there is no peace unless there is a Palestine, not accepting  how Israel has struggled to have peace with its neighbors ever since the 1920's when Husseini, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem was powerful and against the Jews creating Israel. The struggle includes the PLO with Arafat and now the October 7, 2023 slaughter of Jewish citizens done in the bloodiest manner possible for a human to do.  He must go along with the 1967 credo of wiping Israel's Jews into the Sea.  Any planning for a "Palestine" has been kyboshed. They signed a peace accord and still refuse to give up their arms, so they have broken that a well.  They are terrorists, never having the ability or right to have another country of their own.  They have attacking Israel continually; some neighbor they would make !!! They've bared their colors and they are not acceptable.  There was a time when Jews had wonderful plans for them as neighbors, but that has been buried for good now.   

"The treaties marked a departure from the 1967 Khartoum Resolution's "Three No's" paradigm—no peace, no recognition and no negotiations with Israel—as well as the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative, which conditioned recognition on the establishment of a Palestinian state. In doing so, they deprived Palestinians of one of their few remaining sources of diplomatic leverage: the Arab consensus that Israel's regional integration must be contingent on ending its occupation of Palestine."  (Israel had the papers giving them the right to the land of Israel of which Britain gave away 75% of it to become Trans-Jordan, then just Jordan, so there is your Palestine, Mr. Robinson).  

Resource: by Brian Carter, Nicholas Carl-May 7, 2026; https://www.aei.org/commentary/iran-must-not-rule-the-strait-of-hormuz/?gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=22312010316&gbraid=0AAAAADwVl0hrm6I2Jb9l2HQBhzVE8nPz4&gclid=CjwKCAjwhZDUBhBGEiwAbi5bjp1bof5nOETH_ebee4YQ992c98_kbUXRNiqO6X6n;  

May 07, 2026

 without a finalized agreement.