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Wednesday, December 19, 2018

Part I: Is Trump Pulling Out of Syria Good For Israel?

 Nadene Goldfoot

Missiles have been pointing towards Israel from Syria for years.  They've been a terrible threat.   Lately in the past 4 years,  the presence of the USA in Syria  in the fight against ISIS couldn't have hurt Israel.  Most likely it helped.  

"On 14 April 2018, beginning at 04:00 Syrian time, the United States, France, and the United Kingdom carried out a series of military strikes involving aircraft and ship-based missiles against multiple government sites in Syria because they use chemicals against their people and it was believed that they had recently."  

The U.S. military is preparing a rapid withdrawal of its forces from Syria, administration officials said today, a Wednesday, a move that marks an abrupt reversal of America’s past strategy in the Middle East.  Assad's regime has missiles and used them in April of 2018.  " Syria had launched 40 surface-to-air missiles in an attempt to shoot a Typhoon aircraft down, but that most of them had been fired after the last Syrian target had already been destroyed." 
                                                                        

2,000 American troops will be packing up within the next 30 days and leaving.  The USA has been there the past 4 years in a war against the Islamic state and they feel they have won the battle, they feel, so must leave.  This is one of the promises Trump had made in running for office and so far he tries very hard to fulfill his promises.  He did with the American embassy having been moved to Jerusalem already, one of his promises that so many scoffed at in fulfilling.  
                                                                       
Killing is what ISIS does.
They practice beheading.  

Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican, is not happy with this move.  He's worried about the Kurds in Syria not receiving protection now.  That's because of Turkey, whose leadership has gone very extremist in Islam, " said this week that it was preparing to launch an operation against a Kurdish militia in northern Syria, which has been an ally of the US in its fight against IS. Turkey, who has given Israel plenty of problems in the past by promoting Palestinians, is angry with the USA for being friends with the Kurds, the very same group  of YPG militia who want Independence in Turkey with their own autonomy.  I believe that's something that the Pashtuns have had for so long in Afghanistan and Pakistan.  Descriptions I've read sound very much like the USA's Indian Reservations.  In other words, something like having their own county, at the least.  Turkey's President Erdogen is threatening a military operation against the Kurds soon.  
                                                                      
ISIS in a Mass Killing

There are pockets of ISIS terrorists left in NE Syria, however.  There are  fears that a US withdrawal will cede American influence in Syria and the wider region to Russia and Iran.
"However, the militant group has not disappeared entirely. A recent US report said there were still as many as 14,000 IS militants in Syria and even more in neighboring Iraq - and there is a fear they will shift to guerrilla tactics in an attempt to rebuild their network."
                                                               
American tank patrolling Turkish border with Syria with Turkish
backed fighters in Manbij, in northern Syria

If it become necessary, the USA and others will return.  We will continue to work together to deny radical Islamist terrorists territory, funding, support and any means of infiltrating  borders of American interests."  

Israel has so many terrorists that they are fighting, that ISIS would be one among many with Hamas right now being the biggest headache, and of course, Iran's group. Nevertheless, hopefully, the USA would help out if asked by Israel, which would be in the line of ammunition more than it would combat soldiers, something no one has been expected to do.  Israel fights alone.   
                                                                     

The USA troops have been fighting ISIS in  partnership with an alliance of Syrian Kurdish and Arab fighters, known as the Syrian Democratic Forces, and is credited with playing a major role in the virtual elimination of IS after it overran large swathes of Syria four years ago, imposing brutal rule on almost eight million people in the country and neighbouring Iraq.
                                                               

"The US announced (yesterday) on Tuesday that it had agreed to sell $3.5bn in missiles to Turkey to "increase the defensive capabilities of the Turkey military to guard against hostile aggression and shield Nato allies who might train and operate within Turkey's borders.".
Here, Israel isn't even pointed out, but I hope you know where it is.  A bit of Syria is on its border.  
Here is Turkey, Syria, Lebanon and Israel.
Israel's neighbors are Lebanon, a piece of Syria, Jordan and Egypt.  

An  official said the withdrawal of troops would be phased out over several weeks and that the American-led airstrike campaign against the Islamic State in Syria, which began in 2014, would continue. That official said the military hoped to rely on Kurdish fighters on the ground to help with targeting.  The Kurds live in Turkey, Syria, and Israel.  They came in 1948 from all these areas and many now live in or near Jerusalem.  Long ago they lived in Kurdistan in the mountains between Turkey, Iran and Iraq.  Their DNA is the closest to the Jews.  No wonder.  The 1st Jewish settlers immigrated to Kurdistan as early as in the time of Ezra in the 400s BCE.  He was the 1st Israelite to return from Babylon to Jerusalem.  

Israel has survived for 70 years all alone, but it has been nice having American presence so near during these past 4 years.  Now they are pulling out, but Israel will survive.  Since April 2018, " there are about 2,000 U.S. troops in Syria, working as advisers to the Syrian Defense Forces or providing other support to local militias battling the Islamic State (ISIS) ."In September 2014, U.S. warplanes that had been shelling the Islamic State in Iraq started bombing targets in Syria. 

 Sarah Huckabee said that " We expect countries in the region and beyond, plus the United Nations, to work toward peace and ensure that ISIS never re-emerges."  Their accomplishment has been to take back 90% of the ISIS held-land.  That's good for Assad, left in his position in Syria.  

Resource: https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-military-preparing-for-a-full-withdrawal-of-its-forces-from-northeastern-syria-11545225641
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-46623617
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/19/us/politics/trump-syria-turkey-troop-withdrawal.html
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/the-us-and-turkey-could-go-to-war
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_missile_strikes_against_Syria
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2018/04/04/u-s-troops-syria-and-what-they-doing-there/486763002/
Noted: Fox News discussion 3:48pm 

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