Israel threatens to destroy Syrian air defenses

[John Knoble]

The IAF attacked SDF forces in the Palmyra area in their defense of ISIS allies March 17th losing one aircraft with one aircraft damaged by the Syrian missiles according to Syrian sources. Israeli sources, while admitting the attack denied losing any aircraft, claimed to shoot down one of Syria's anti-aircraft missiles. Every aspect of this raid and response is a very unusual and an escalation of military tension. Pat Lang opined that Israeli's had tried to cross a red line and were rejected. Message sent; message received.

Until today. Israel has now threatened Syria with the destruction of there entire air defense if they defend their country again. Pat Lang now admits the Israeli's show no fear of the Russians and are threatening a major escalation of unknown proportions.

My guess is that the Israeli's know there's a new sheriff in town and his name is Trump. The big gamble is that Russia will back down. Another angle is that Netanyahu met with Putin recently and was no shown the kind of respect he thought he deserved.

Yep, I also suspect it was an attempt to test the boundaries of Russia and to see how the US would respond. The studied nonchalance of the DOD spokesman is telling, I think.

Israel getting involved will tend to unite Syrians behind the government. Surprised they are.