Prestwich_Blue
Well-Known Member
The OP has previous for picking up sensational headlines from some of the conspiracy theorist websites he's fond of. The headline, as is often the case in the media, is far more sensational than the story that follows and the OP then sexes it up even further. He doesn't bother to read the story itself (because he can't read big words or follow an argument that is more than 6 words long) or perhaps he chooses to ignore it and just be a troll.west didsblue said:If you read the link provided by the OP, the author refers to a number of articles saying that Israel has helped treat injured members of the FSA. They may also have provided some support to Al-Haramein which is an element of the FSA not affiliated to Al Qaeda. The author, Asa Winstanley, who writes for Electronic Intifada and other pro Palestinian publications, then spuriously interprets this as Israel supporting Al Qaeda on the basis that the FSA and Al Nusra are both fighting the Syrian government in spite of the fact they've also been fighting each other. It's a fucking complicated situation but there's no credible evidence that Israel is providing any assistance to any Al Qaeda affiliate.Kazzydeyna said:Serious question..
Is "Israel supporting Al-Queda" any different from the UK/USA supporting Saddam Hussein in the 80's?
When we sold him the WMD that he happily used against the Kurds, with our tacit approval (until years later when we decided it was wrong - nothing to Do with wanting his oil of course)
Or the UK supporting America using chemical weapons in Vietnam?
Or the UK/USA developing nuclear weapons at the same time as denying them to Iran or any other countries we don't like?
The point is, ALL govts act hypocritically. Twas ever thus.
I'm no friend of Israel, but we shouldn't single her out. That's rank hypocrisy given our own history.
But I'll grant that there's some evidence that Israel may have provided medical treatment to, or maybe even had discussions with, Syrian rebel fighters belonging to a group that is probably an affiliate of Al Qaeda. Furthermore, when you do a little bit of research, there's a story that this group might have been considering disaffiliating from AQ and receiving funding from the UAE. Then we could have had a thread headlined "Man City supporting Al Qaeda".
But even if Israel were providing financial and logistical support to Al Nusrah, there's a good reason why that would be. Al Nusrah are fighting against Hezbollah, who are supporting and fighting on the side of Assad. Now all things being equal, it suits Israel to have Syria in disarray as Assad's Syria and Iran are close allies, Iran arms Hezbollah and anything that's bad for Iran is seen as good for Israel. (I actually believe that Israel and Iran should have common strategic interests in keeping the Middle East stable but unfortunately I'm not setting Israel's foreign policy). So on that basis alone, Israel supporting an effective anti-Assad group makes some sense.
But if they can encourage Al Nusrah to take on Hezbollah (and they shouldn't really need much encouraging) then it serves a double purpose as Hezbollah are in control of Southern Lebanon and therefore a direct threat to Israel's northern border. They've already demonstrated that they have the ability to inflict damage on Israel so if Israel can find a group that's willing to take Hezbollah on without them needing to get directly involved then they'd be mad not to do that. Unfortunately that's the nature of realpolitik and, as kazzydeyna has ightly pointed out, all governments do it.