Israel Matzav

The Biden fallout

This report from the UAE's The National has some potentially serious implications.

Although US officials contacted by The National could not completely confirm that such technology had been transferred to Hizbollah by Syria, one official privy to intelligence briefings confirmed a story previously reported in the Israeli press that in the weeks before Senator John Kerry’s visit to Damascus on April 1, Israel almost bombed what it claimed was a convoy of advanced weaponry headed from Syrian military bases to Hizbollah along the shared border with Lebanon.

“I can’t promise you that planes were actually in the air, but it was close, very close,” said the official. “The White House had to talk them down from the attack and promised that Kerry would use strong language” with the Syrian president, Bashar Assad.

When asked about the outcome of the meeting between Mr Kerry and Mr Assad on the issue, the source tartly responded: “In light of where we are now, what do you think?”

Paul Mirengoff notes:

Having "insulted" Vice President Biden when he was in Israel, Israel understandably might not have wanted to undermine John Kerry's visit to Damascus. On the other hand, Israel shouldn't let the jaunts of lame Democratic pols dictate either its housing policy or its response to security threats.

Is Israel going to ask Obama's permission to attack Iran's nuclear weapons development program and hold off if there are 'talks' going on about 'sanctions'? Compare this with the way that the Bush administration handled the al-Kibar attack. Israel showed them it was there and they apparently gave a go-ahead albeit not a public one. With Obama, we'll never get clearance to strike and we shouldn't be waiting for it.

What could go wrong?

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 2:41 PM