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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe Broader Stakes of Syrian Crisis
Though some intelligence analysts still doubt that the Syrian government launched a chemical attack, the political momentum for a US retaliatory strike may be unstoppable. But the broader framework of the crisis involves the Israeli-Iranian dispute and the future of regional peace, says ex-CIA analyst Ray McGovern.
A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm, a policy document prepared in 1996 for Benjamin Netanyahu by a study group led by American neocons, including Richard Perle and Douglas Feith, laid out a new approach to solving Israels principal security challenges. Essentially, the point was to shatter the frustrating cycle of negotiations with the Palestinians and instead force regime change on hostile states in the region, thus isolating Israels close-in adversaries.
Among the plans features was the containment of Syria by engaging in proxy warfare and highlighting their possession of weapons of mass destruction. The following Clean-Break paragraph is, no doubt, part of the discussion in Irans leadership councils:
Israel can shape its strategic environment, in cooperation with Turkey and Jordan by weakening, containing, and even rolling back Syria. This effort can focus on removing Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq an important Israeli strategic objective in its own right as a means of foiling Syrias regional ambitions. [See Consortiumnews.coms The Mysterious Why of the Iraq War.]
http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=60952
KharmaTrain
(31,706 posts)...Israel gain little from a regime change in Damascus. It's the devil they know, Assad, vs. rebel groups supported by countries sworn to Israel's destruction: Saudi Arabia and Iran. It's the Saudis who are supporting the Sunni groups that include supposed AQ members while the Iranians have their money riding on Hezbollah whose influence in Lebanon and ability to attack Israel is hampered if they are on the losing side here. For decades Assad represented a "status quo" in that country...I can't see how Israel gains from the ouster of Assad...