West Savages Gaza - Slowly Burns Syria

Tony Cartalucci, Contributor
Activist Post

Even as nations like Turkey, Qatar, and Egypt protest the Western-backed and facilitated destruction of Gaza by Israel, they, along with these very Western nations they protest, including Israel, continue coordinating efforts with each other to topple and destroy Syria.

Weapons and aid that many Arabs would like to see sent to defend Gaza, are instead in the hands of terrorists killing fellow Arabs across the Levant in the pursuit of long-ago articulated US-Israeli-Saudi plans to reshape the Middle East for their collective hegemonic ambitions.

Israeli Attack on Gaza – A Feast for those Starving of Legitimacy

In fact, the Israeli attack on Gaza – an otherwise fruitless adventure assured to end in either an embarrassing early ceasefire for Israel, or another 2006 Lebanon-style strategic defeat – is designed to give Turkey, Qatar, Egypt, and others across the region currently working with the US, UK, EU, and Israel to destroy Syria, a renewed sense of legitimacy in the eyes of the Muslim World.

Not only are Muslim nations that are in league with the West benefiting from this “legitimacy windfall,” so are international institutions like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. The reputations of both have suffered for consistently backing and defending terrorists operating inside Syria as the general public increasingly becomes aware of the atrocities they are committing and their true, sectarian motivations. The nebulous Anonymous group, which has also lent tremendous support for Western-backed terrorists operating in Syria, has also used the Israeli-Gaza conflict to continue casting doubt as to where their real loyalty lies.

Manipulative Roll-Out for US-Created “Opposition Council”

The attack is one of many stunts playing out this month to strengthen the faltering, stalled campaign to implement long-planned Western-backed regime change in Syria – a plot aimed ultimately at the subsequent destruction of Iran.

Another ploy has been the US handpicking a so-called “Syrian opposition council” (and here) at a meeting in Doha, the capital of the despotic monarchical regime of Qatar. The opposition council is merely window dressing for a network of terrorists directly linked to Al Qaeda, funded and armed by the West since 2007, to violently overthrow the Syrian government. The council represents a collage of ineffectual, long-time servants of Western interests, rejected both within and beyond Syria’s borders.

To multiply a sense of legitimacy for the newly Western-created council, each Western nation behind the front has taken turns over the last week, making “dramatic” announcements of recognition of the council as the “sole legitimate representatives of the Syrian people.”

This would include an announcement from France by President François Hollande, who is facing all time low approval ratings for the blatant and continual betrayal of his campaign promises, which included withdrawing from, not accelerating, foreign entanglements. It remains to be seen what legitimacy Hollande can offer the council, when he himself faces a crisis of legitimacy in his own office.

Similar announcements have been made, piecemeal for dramatic drawn out effect, by the EU and the UK. This strategy mirrors regime change efforts aimed at Libya, which has left the nation decimated through a combination of NATO bombardment, sectarian genocide, tribal warfare, and the country in the hands of a clearly servile Western-client regime and terrorists hailing from the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG), one of the most notorious and prolific wings of Al Qaeda in the Arab World. LIFG is now currently, with NATO aid, flooding arms, cash, and militants into Syria.

Treason Unfolds in Doha, Qatar.

That Doha, Qatar hosted the creation of this so-called “Syrian” opposition council is truly telling. While Qatar feigns indignation over the recent Israeli assault on Gaza, the despotic nation actually hosts the US corporate-funded think tank, the Brookings Institution, and its Doha and Saban policy centers.

The Saban Center has been responsible for the “Which Path to Persia?” report, a self-indicting manifesto aimed at achieving Western hegemony across the Middle East, using both the US and Israel as a medium to do so – and by specifically attacking, subverting, and destroying both Syria and Iran.

The Saban Center was founded and named after Haim Saban, an Israeli-American media mogul and businessman ranked by Forbes as the 134th richest person in America. For Qatar to host such a collection of policy makers within its own capital, the very people manipulating both sides of a purposefully perpetuated conflict shamelessly admitted to be seeking the reassertion of Western interests across the region, goes far in explaining why the unelected, ruler-for-life, Sheik of Qatar can only muster harsh words for Israel’s current assault on Gaza.

Qatar’s paralysis is not of an operational dimension, but of a political one. Qatar has already demonstrated its operational capacity versus Libya – even deploying warplanes, special forces, and a significant amount of weapons and cash to terrorists who worked to subvert the West’s adversary, Muammar Qaddafi. The Associated Press reported in their article, “Qatar Warplanes enroute for Libya no-fly zone duty,” that:

Two Qatar Air Force fighter jets and a cargo aircraft were heading to Crete on Tuesday in the first sign of military operations by Qatar so far to help enforce a no—fly zone over Libya, officials said.

The Guardian reported in their article, “Qatar admits sending hundreds of troops to support Libya rebels,” that:

Qatar has admitted for the first time that it sent hundreds of troops to support the Libyan rebels who overthrew Muammar Gaddafi’s regime.

The Gulf state had previously acknowledged only that its air force took part in Nato-led attacks.

The revelation came as Qatar hosted a conference on the post-Gaddafi era that was attended by the leader of Libya’s ruling National Transitional Council, Mustafa Abdel-Jalil, who described the Qataris as having planned the battles that paved the way for victory.

The Guardian would also report in their article, “Libyan rebels receiving anti-tank weapons from Qatar,” that:

Qatar is secretly supplying anti-tank weapons to the Libyan rebels as part of its strategy of working to overthrow the Gaddafi regime, it has emerged. Officials in Doha confirmed that the Gulf state’s military had been shipping French-made Milan missiles to the rebel stronghold of Benghazi.

Likewise, Qatar is complicit in the US-Israeli-Saudi enterprise of subverting and overthrowing the government of Syria, a plan exposed as early as 2007 by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh in his New Yorker article titled, “The Redirection.”

In the report it specifically stated:

To undermine Iran, which is predominantly Shiite, the Bush Administration has decided, in effect, to reconfigure its priorities in the Middle East. In Lebanon, the Administration has cooperated with Saudi Arabia’s government, which is Sunni, in clandestine operations that are intended to weaken Hezbollah, the Shiite organization that is backed by Iran. The U.S. has also taken part in clandestine operations aimed at Iran and its ally Syria. A by-product of these activities has been the bolstering of Sunni extremist groups that espouse a militant vision of Islam and are hostile to America and sympathetic to Al Qaeda. –The Redirection, Seymour Hersh (2007)

The report would also state:

The policy shift has brought Saudi Arabia and Israel into a new strategic embrace, largely because both countries see Iran as an existential threat. They have been involved in direct talks, and the Saudis, who believe that greater stability in Israel and Palestine will give Iran less leverage in the region, have become more involved in Arab-Israeli negotiations.

The policy shift has brought Saudi Arabia and Israel into a new strategic embrace, largely because both countries see Iran as an existential threat. They have been involved in direct talks, and the Saudis, who believe that greater stability in Israel and Palestine will give Iran less leverage in the region, have become more involved in Arab-Israeli negotiations. –The Redirection, Seymour Hersh (2007)

Clearly Qatar has joined the House of Saud and the Israelis in this “new strategic embrace.” So as bombs fall on Gaza, giving Qatar a chance to score points condemning Israel, it will continue using the summation of its operational capacity in pursuit of destabilizing and destroying Israel’s enemy to the east, Syria. Nations including Turkey and Egypt, also feigning unconvincing support for Gaza are also huddled together with the Persian Gulf monarchies – in this “embrace.” It should be noted that the Muslim Brotherhood was also implicated in 2007 as a co-conspirator with the US, Israel, and Saudi Arabia, Seymour Hersh stating:

There is evidence that the Administration’s redirection strategy has already benefited the Brotherhood. The Syrian National Salvation Front is a coalition of opposition groups whose principal members are a faction led by Abdul Halim Khaddam, a former Syrian Vice-President who defected in 2005, and the Brotherhood. A former high-ranking C.I.A. officer told me, ‘The Americans have provided both political and financial support. The Saudis are taking the lead with financial support, but there is American involvement.’ He said that Khaddam, who now lives in Paris, was getting money from Saudi Arabia, with the knowledge of the White House. (In 2005, a delegation of the Front’s members met with officials from the National Security Council, according to press reports.) A former White House official told me that the Saudis had provided members of the Front with travel documents. –The Redirection, Seymour Hersh (2007)

Turkey’s Leadership Brings Nation to the Brink for Western Hegemony.

Turkey is implicated by the above mentioned Saban Center itself, as a necessary component in joint Turkish-Israeli cooperation to press Syria’s borders to trigger dissent amongst Syria’s military ranks.

Image: A Patriot missile system. NATO Source Alliance News Blog reported on November 4, 2012, “Turkey plans to officially request NATO deploy a Patriot missile defense system in its territories as a security precaution against a potential large-scale military offensive from Syria as Syrian shelling on the border raises tensions.” Now this request is being re-purposed to enact a de facto “no fly zone” over northern Syria – illustrating the duplicitous nature of reports/initiatives coming out of NATO members as they once again attempt to creep their way toward unwarranted military intervention.

In Brookings’ Saban Center report, “Assessing Options for Regime Change” it is stated (emphasis added):

In addition, Israel’s intelligence services have a strong knowledge of Syria, as well as assets within the Syrian regime that could be used to subvert the regime’s power base and press for Asad’s removal. Israel could posture forces on or near the Golan Heights and, in so doing, might divert regime forces from suppressing the opposition. This posture may conjure fears in the Asad regime of a multi-front war, particularly if Turkey is willing to do the same on its border and if the Syrian opposition is being fed a steady diet of arms and training. Such a mobilization could perhaps persuade Syria’s military leadership to oust Asad in order to preserve itself. Advocates argue this additional pressure could tip the balance against Asad inside Syria, if other forces were aligned properly. –page 6, Assessing Options for Regime Change, Brookings Institution.

Image: The Brookings Institution, Middle East Memo #21 “Assessing Options for Regime Change (.pdf),” makes no secret that the humanitarian “responsibility to protect” is but a pretext for long-planned regime change.

Turkish leaders have clearly spent much time fabricating various excuses to meet Washington’s demands in this regard by fabricating or taking advantage of violence Turkey itself is fostering along its own border with Syria. Israel has also begun putting pressure onto Syria’s borders near the Golan Heights – in a verbatim manifestation of the Brookings-Saban Center plan.

Like Qatar, Turkey’s leadership sheds crocodile tears for Gaza, while explicitly coordinating with Israel versus Syria, based on the Doha-based Saban Center’s plans.

Final Push Against Syria.

As the US-Israeli-Saudi co-conspirators of Qatar, Turkey, Egypt, and others rack up anti-Israeli rhetorical points during the latest Israeli-Gaza conflict, they continue quietly collaborating with both the West and Israel against Syria. As the West attempts to prop up their newly reconstituted “opposition council” while galvanizing Qatari-Saudi-Egyptian backed sectarian extremists with over-the-top Israeli provocations, the stage is set for a final push against Syria.

Turkey’s attempts to deploy Patriot missile batteries along the Turkish-Syrian border fulfills yet another objective articulated in the Doha-based US Brookings-Saban Center policy paper, “Assessing Options for Regime Change (.pdf)” – to carve out a northern “safe haven” from which NATO-backed terrorists can operate – and provide a protected seat of power for the West’s newly re-contrived “opposition council.”

But while the West continues to posture and manipulate regional perceptions, Western aggression is already reaching its operational limits – and while it could embark upon a wider, more overt military confrontation with Syria, should both the Syrian people and Syria’s allies remain committed to the defense of the nation’s sovereignty, not only will this aggression fail, it will create momentum that will roll the West and its extraterritorial interests back significantly, if not entirely. Unity is still Syria’s only option.

Tony Cartalucci’s articles have appeared on many alternative media websites, including his own at Land Destroyer Report. Read other contributed articles by Tony Cartalucci here.