Israel Reacts to Save Itself as Obama Continues to Do Nothing in the Middle East

The hands-off do-nothing Middle East policy of President Obama is coming home to roost. Obama has refused often to take a stand as the region has been assaulted by the Iranian regime's nuclear program, by the continued harassment of Israel by the Hamas-Hezbollah terrorist regime in the Gaza Strip, and by the Syrian al-Assad regime's genocidal war against its own people. Not a pretty record for a man who told a Cairo audience several years ago that America was with them in their fight for freedom and democracy. And Obama's indifference has eroded the US-Israeli level of mutual confidence to the point where, instead of supporting Israel's reasonable fears of nuclear attack by Iran or invasion from Hamas, President Obama has actually told Israel that its normal desire to defend itself is not in the best interests of America. So, it should not be surprising that yesterday Israel took its defense into its own hands. It seems that when Israel had credible intelligence that there was a convoy moving in an al-Assad area of Syria, carrying a shipment, including sophisticated Russian-made SA-17 anti-aircraft missiles, moving toward a Hezbollah area and which could be used to enhance its military capabilities by enabling the militants to shoot down Israeli jets, helicopters and surveillance drones, Israel struck, incapacitating the convoy. Today, Syria threatened to retaliate and its ally, Iran, said there will be repercussions for the Jewish state over the attack. Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hinted that Israel could carry out similar missions in the future. And so, dear readers, the tensions in this most unstable region have been notched up considerably. There are suggestions by regional security experts that al-Assad is losing his grip on Syria and its arsenal of conventional and nonconventional weapons. The al-Assad regime said Israel entered its territory to bomb a scientific research center near Damascus. Associated Press reports that Maj. Gen. Abdul-Aziz Jassem al-Shallal, who in December became one of the most senior Syrian army officers to defect, said that the site the regime said was targeted is a "major and well-known" center to develop weapons and is known as the Scientific Research Center. Russian and Iranian experts are usually present at the site, he added, but said no nonconventional or chemical weapons are at the site. Hezbollah condemned the attack as "barbaric aggression" and said it "expresses full solidarity with Syria's command, army and people." Russia, Syria's most important ally, said this appeared to be an unprovoked attack on a sovereign nation. Moscow said it was taking urgent measures to clarify the situation in all its details. "If this information is confirmed, we have a case of unprovoked attacks on targets in the territory of a sovereign state, which grossly violates the UN Charter and is unacceptable," Russia's Foreign Ministry said in a statement. "Whatever the motives, this is not justified." The distressing truth is that as long as America refuses to take its leadership position in the Middle East seriously, Israel will have to go on defending itself against neighbors whose avowed intention is to "annihilate" her. It seems to me to be the grossest betrayal of a deep and abiding friendship for the US to turn its back, at least publicly at the White House level, on Israel. If the US military continues to maintain very close relations with Israel, the effort is being undercut by seeming indifference on the part of Obama - an indifference that makes al-Assad, Iran and Hamas-Hezbollah more bold. This in turn causes even more destabilizing confrontations with Israel. Earlier this week, Netanyahu warned of the dangers of Syria's "deadly weapons," saying the country is "increasingly coming apart." Israel deployed its new "Iron Dome" rocket defense system to the northern city of Haifa, which was battered by Hezbollah rocket fire in the 2006 war. The Israeli army called that move "routine." Ban Ki-moon expressed grave concern over reports of Israeli airstrikes on Syria but said the U.N. does not have details of the reported incident and cannot independently verify what happened. And so the Middle East lurches further toward a major war. One which President Obama would roundly condemn, without ever acknowledging that his do-nothing regional policy would have been a major contributor to such a war.