By Destroying Syria’s Chemical-Weapons Capabilities, Israel Undergirds the Regional Order

Dec. 15 2021

On Monday, the Washington Post reported that the IDF had conducted two airstrikes—on March 5, 2020 and June 8, 2021—targeting Syria’s chemical-weapons program. Jerusalem is thought to have carried out similar attacks in 2018. Besides demonstrating the failure of the 2013 U.S. agreement to have Russia supervise the removal of Damascus’s chemical weapons, the Israeli attacks send a clear message to the world. Yoav Limor writes:

The strikes on secret facilities where the Syrian regime had intended to restart its chemical-weapons manufacturing program had three goals. The first was to keep non-conventional weapons out of Syria’s hands, even if they were only at the initial stages of development. The second was to make clear to the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, that Israel would not allow Syria to go back to threatening it with weapons of mass destruction. And third, to send a message to other countries—primarily Iran—that Israel will take the same course of action against anyone who develops weapons that threaten its existence.

The Washington Post report does not make it clear what the U.S. response was to the strikes, and more pertinently, why the U.S. was not the one to attack after explicitly promising that it would not allow Syria to obtain chemical weapons of any type. It might have to do with Israel beating it to the punch and allegedly carrying out the strikes as part of the operations it allegedly carries out in Syria on a regular basis. . . . It’s also possible that the Americans simply balked at exercising military force—both the Trump administration, which was in power at the time of the first strike, and the Biden administration, which was in power during the second.

By avoiding an attack on these facilities, the Americans again missed an opportunity to send a message to the Middle East and the world as a whole. Israel, on the other hand, stood up for its principles, again.

Read more at Israel Hayom

More about: Chemical weapons, Israeli Security, Syria, U.S. Foreign policy

Expand Gaza into Sinai

Feb. 11 2025

Calling the proposal to depopulate Gaza completely (if temporarily) “unworkable,” Peter Berkowitz makes the case for a similar, but more feasible, plan:

The United States along with Saudi Arabia and the UAE should persuade Egypt by means of generous financial inducements to open the sparsely populated ten-to-fifteen miles of Sinai adjacent to Gaza to Palestinians seeking a fresh start and better life. Egypt would not absorb Gazans and make them citizens but rather move Gaza’s border . . . westward into Sinai. Fences would be erected along the new border. The Israel Defense Force would maintain border security on the Gaza-extension side, Egyptian forces on the other. Egypt might lease the land to the Palestinians for 75 years.

The Sinai option does not involve forced transfer of civilian populations, which the international laws of war bar. As the United States, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and other partners build temporary dwellings and then apartment buildings and towns, they would provide bus service to the Gaza-extension. Palestinian families that choose to make the short trip would receive a key to a new residence and, say, $10,000.

The Sinai option is flawed. . . . Then again, all conventional options for rehabilitating and governing Gaza are terrible.

Read more at RealClear Politics

More about: Donald Trump, Egypt, Gaza Strip, Sinai Peninsula