Israel has been back at it again, striking Syria in the name of defending itself against Iran, and bombing Gaza in the name of responding to rocket attacks provoked by its ceasefire violation by first striking Gaza.
This latest fiasco all began on November 12 in a targeted assassination attempt against two leaders of the Palestinian Resistance group, Islamic Jihad, by way of airstrikes against the targeted commanders' homes in Gaza and Damascus respectively. Just minutes after successfully assassinating the commander Bahaa Abu al-Ata in Gaza, however, Israeli airstrikes hitting the home of a top Islamic Jihad official Akram al-Ajouri in Damascus was a complete and miserable failure, not only missing al-Ajouri who apparently wasn't home at the time, but also killing 2 civilians and injuring 9 others.
A source in Damascus reported that "the aggression resulted in the death of his son Moaz and the injury of his granddaughter Batoul and the death of Abdullah Yousef Hassan in addition to the injuring of nine civilians," according to the Al Manar News report on the attack. Syria successfully intercepted one of the three missiles fired towards Damascus, while the other two hit the targeted home near the Lebanese Embassy in Mezza neighborhood.
Damage from the missile strike. (source)
Islamic Jihad had not carried out any recent attacks against Israel to warrant this operation, and it should be noted that the Israeli Occupation is well aware that the assassination of Palestinian Resistance leaders is the one action that is absolutely guaranteed to provoke a violent response by Palestinian militants. Having first violated the ceasefire with Gaza militants and provoking a response by their choice of targets, Israel then cried self defense when it carried out a wide scale bombing campaign against the densely civilian populated Gaza Strip in response to the expected rocket barrages fired by Islamic Jihad in response to the initial Israeli attacks, which ended up killing scores of innocent Palestinians.
This back and forth continued for three days before a shaky ceasefire was brokered, with Palestinian rockets killing no Israelis whatsoever and doing very minimal damage mostly falling in open fields, while the indiscriminate Israeli bombings across the Gaza Strip killed over 30 Palestinians and wreaked havoc on an already tattered civilian infrastructure.
US officials immediately jumped to defend Israel's right to 'defend itself' against terrorism and the evil Palestinian rockets terrorizing the poor terrified Israeli children who had to hide in bomb shelters, while completely ignoring the very real plight of Palestinian children who were actually dying, in the very process of being killed by Israeli airstrikes.
Talk about a double standard for what constitutes terrorism and what constitutes self defense. No mention in western media or by government officials jumping to Israel's defense regarding the initial attack by Israel against Palestinians in both Gaza and Damascus which provoked this entire ordeal, no comparison of the highly sophisticated killing machinery of the Israeli forces compared to the highly inaccurate and ineffective Palestinian rockets, and no mention of the inhumane and crippling Zionist military siege of Gaza nor the hundreds of innocent unarmed Palestinians murdered by Israeli snipers over the past 19 months at the weekly border protests.
Like usual, Palestinian civilians being slaughtered were labeled terrorists by the Israeli Occupation. In one particularly shocking case, Israel bombed a civilian family home killing the entire family of eight, while publicly claiming it had targeted the commander of Islamic Jihad's rocket unit.
They even named the target and released a photo purporting to show him, but it turns out no such person had ever been in the ranks of the militant group, if he even exists at all! The IDF later admitted to its mistake and that it had made the false claim regarding the so-called target of the strike, but does not appear to have offered any apology for the murder of an entire impoverished family who had no connection with Islamic Jihad or any other militant group whatsoever.
Not even a week later, on November 20 Israel attacked Syria once again, carrying out what it described as wide-scale airstrikes across Damascus targeting Iranian and Syrian Army units, in response to what it claims were 4 rockets fired towards northern Israel from within Syria by the Iranian al-Quds force and intercepted over the Israeli occupied Syrian Golan Heights.
But like always, no evidence was produced to validate this claim, nor the claim that Iranian forces were targeted or hit, and the evidence on the ground in the form of photos and video footage demonstrates that these strikes successfully destroyed extensive civilian infrastructure and killed at least two civilians while injuring several more.
Israel claims to have specifically targeted Syrian air defense batteries because Syria does not refrain from defending itself from these habitual unprovoked Israeli attacks being carried out on a regular basis.
Now just imagine if Syria launched airstrikes targeting Israel's Iron Dome defense batteries because they refused to refrain from shooting down, say, those four rockets allegedly fired at northern Israel from within Syria! I think we all know how that would go down, and the international community would certainly not let it fly. But when Israel does the exact same thing, it is somehow considered normal and an act of self defense. Because according to Israel's logic, no country has the right to defend itself against Israeli aggression. And this is the reality for anyone who dares stand against Zionist aggression and expansion in the region.