All Eyes on Syria as U.S. Prepares to Strike Assad

Tensions were high on Israel’s northern border Thursday as senior analysts warned that an American-led strike on the Assad regime in Syria to punish it for a recent chemical weapons attack was imminent, with likely repercussions for Israel. Among the chief concerns is that Iran may use the chaos created by such an attack to attack Israel. Israeli officials have warned that such an attack would be met with a strong response.

The Israeli Air Force carried out another retaliatory strike on Hamas positions inside the Gaza Strip in retaliation for an attempted terror attack overnight Wednesday. “During routine activity north of the Gaza Strip, an explosive device, planted during the violent protests on the border fence, was activated against an IDF bulldozer on the Western side of the border, ” the IDF said in a statement. “In response, the IDF struck several Hamas terror targets.”

Air Defense units of the Saudi Arabian military reported on Wednesday that they had successfully shot down three incoming ballistic missiles fired at Riyadh and other cities by the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen. Two drones operated by Houthi forces were also shot down, including one near a massive oil facility in the city of Jizan operated by Saudi Aramco.

Chief (Sephardi) Rabbi of Israel Yitzhak Yosef sent a letter this week to Udi Praver, head of the Civil Service Commission, demanding that a special course being planned for male cadets be gender-separate. The letter followed a recent ruling by Jerusalem’s Labor Court that such a requirement violated Israeli laws regarding equal employment opportunities and was injurious to “the basic right of women to equality.”

Dozens of participants in this year’s Eurovision artistic festival toured Israel this week, capping their visit with a concert at Tel Aviv’s Rabin Square Tuesday evening. The tour was part of the Israel Calling event supported by the Foreign and Tourism Ministries. During their visit, several of the artists expressed their love for Israel and their desire to visit again in the future.

If there is any lesson that should come out of more than half a decade of war in Syria, it is that any use of force must be strong enough to be decisive. The risks are higher, but token uses of force against expendable targets do little more than make the U.S. seem weak and ineffective, and may actually inspire Assad to be more ruthless over time than no U.S. response at all.

On Holocaust Remembrance Day, we commemorate the 6 million Jews who were murdered in the Holocaust, and remember 36 Righteous Diplomats from 21 countries, who risked their lives to save thousands of Jews during WWII.

Israel remembers the victims of the Holocaust on Yom HaShoah – a Memorial Day that falls on April 12th this year. The ICEJ will stand together with the people of Israel in their moment of mourning and reflection.