Analysis
Featured Image
A man is pictured in front of a vandalized political banner featuring a portrait of Bashar al-Assad, following news the Syrian government regime had fallen on, December 8, 2024 in Damascus, Syria.Ali Haj Suleiman/Getty Images

U.S. citizens: Tell U.S. Senate to reject new ‘anti-terrorism’ bill

Note from LifeSiteNews co-founder Steve Jalsevac: The complex issues which this detailed, exceptionally well-written article addresses are far more important to all of us than most realize – especially regarding the persecution of Christians.

We understand most will find this to be challenging reading, but you are nevertheless encouraged to persevere because few other sources will report this truth as LifeSiteNews has. It is destined to be a long, ongoing development with major global implications. 

(LifeSiteNews) — Regime change has come to Syria after 70 years of U.S. covert action. Turkey has invaded from the north, reinforcing its proxies and seeking to establish a “security zone.”

Israel has now also invaded, seeking also to secure territory. Syrian leader Bashar Al-Assad has fled to Moscow with his family, leaving most of the country in the hands of “Al-Qaeda and ISIS” – as an Israeli minister said yesterday. 

Why now?

Syria is of enormous significance, as it is the gateway to proposed energy networks whose realization could bypass European reliance on Russian gas. 

The European Union was moving towards normalization of relations with Assad as late as September 2024. This would have removed the sanctions crippling his nation – and depriving his army of wages. A 2021 report said that 10 years of war in Syria have cost the nation $1.2 trillion.

Yet there were other moves being made. 

The plan for regime change in Syria has a long pedigree. What united all the factions – Turkey, the Kurds, the former deputy of ISIS, Israel, Qatar, and the 11 groups behind “HTS” – is they all wanted Assad gone.

If you struggle to accept this was a U.S./Israeli initiative, here are two plans to help with that. 

One is the 1982 Yinon Plan – to realize a “Greater Israel.” This is described as a conspiracy theory, because it is true. The current Israeli minister in charge of the West Bank, Bezalel Smotrich, published a blueprint for this plan in 2017.  

He recently celebrated Donald Trump’s victory, telling the press that this meant the U.S. would support him in his “mega-dramatic” plan to press towards the realization of an Israel which may include Damascus.

READ: World War Syria: Why is the US backing ‘rebels’ who butcher Christians?

The second is a plan devised by a neocon-Israeli “study group” in 1996. It was called “A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm.”

Whose realm? That of Israel, naturally. Its objectives are a close match to those pursued by Smotrich, being in part a plan for regime change in Syria to realize Israeli regional dominance.

Arch-neocon Doug Feith tried to distance himself from this paper, although he is mentioned in the version he links himself. 

In 2018, the Trump administration said the plan for regime change in Syria was abandoned. 

The Biden administration in 2021 also said regime change in Syria was off the menu. 

This remark from 2017 was made by a former Trump State Department staffer: “It never made sense for the United States to seek to overthrow one of the main defenders of Christianity in the Middle East, and to do so by sending arms to evil groups like al-Qaeda – the people who carried out the September 11, 2001 attack on the U.S.” 

In the same week, Trump’s White House spokesman Sean Spicer had said the U.S. must accept the “political reality” that Assad is president of Syria.

“The United States has profound priorities in Syria and Iraq, and we’ve made it clear that counterterrorism, particularly the defeat of ISIS, is foremost among those priorities,” he added.

Even the late John McCain – a notorious neocon warhawk – agreed the priority was fighting Islamist terror groups. The New York Times recorded him saying, “Trying to fight ISIS while pretending that we can ignore the Syrian civil war that was its genesis and fuels it to this day is a recipe for more war, more terror, more refugees, and more instability.”

The Syrian “civil war” was the result of the Hillary Clinton State Department’s intervention in Libya. Arms were transported from Gaddafi’s collapsed state to Syria, to furnish “rebels” with the military power to topple Assad. 

As Jake Sullivan said in a 2012 email to Hillary Clinton, “[Al-Qaeda] is on our side in Syria.”

On the other side of the argument, Trump said in 2013 that the Western media was branding terrorists as “rebels” – as it does today. 

These terrorists – or rebels – have never been interested in attacking Israel.  

Trump on Syria: U.S. must stay out

Trump has said in recent days that the U.S. should not get involved in Syria.  

His narrative of the collapse, which of course ignores seven decades of U.S. involvement in Syrian regime change, and his own condemnation of the so-called rebels in 2013, includes a rather wild analysis of Russia’s campaign in Ukraine. 

According to this narrative, Russia could not spare the resources to back up Syria as it was tied down in a war it is winning. Trump claimed Russia has lost 600,000 men in that war to bolster this framing. 

In reality, the Russians placed S400 air defense units in the country and performed “round the clock” bombing missions on the columns of “terrorists” advancing through Syria. Lister reports around 90 confirmed Russian/Syrian airstrikes on “rebel” positions. It seems the Russians were serious about defending Assad and reports today confirm the Russians were “surprised” at the rapid fall of his regime.

However, it appears the Syrian Arab Army command simply ordered its men not to fight, explaining a series of otherwise inexplicable withdrawals. Rumors are that the latest round of talks on the Astana Format saw Turkey, Russia, Iran, and the Arab nations agree that Assad must go.

This seems an unusual gambit for Russia to pursue, as it stands to lose its airbase in Hmeimim and its naval base in Tartus. This limits its global influence and power projection, and removes Russia from decisions over any future energy lines from the Gulf to Europe, via Turkey or not – as well as a potential oil pipeline running from Iran.

The Astana Format is the agreement between these nations to provide security guarantees for Syria, following the end of the last round of regime change operations in 2015.

Money from the Gulf

Qatar has poured millions into the “rebels” formerly known as Al-Nusra, ISIS, Al-Qaeda. Plans involving Qatar were floated to remove Assad, whose refusal of a Qatari pipeline through Syria led Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to conclude in 2016 that strategic gas supplies explained attempts to remove Assad reaching back to the year 2000.

In 2020, Qatar renewed its support for regime change in Syria, concluding in 2021 that attempts to reach a political solution were over. Reports in 2021 claimed Qatar had “funneled hundreds of millions of dollars … to the Al-Nusra front in Syria.” 

Russia could not support an army which refused to fight. Money was probably decisive in a surprisingly rapid conquest of Syria which Middle Eastern news outlet Al-Mayadeen said bore the hallmarks of an operation agreed in advance. 

Syria has been starved of oil and wheat by a U.S. occupation which Trump celebrated. His missile killed the general who was pivotal in organizing Syria into “the axis of resistance.” Overtures to the Arab League recently suggested Assad had pivoted away. A deal was suggested to lift U.S. and United Arab Emirates sanctions – in exchange for a break with Iran. 

The axis may now be broken altogether. 

Hezbollah cut off

An arms corridor through Syria which was supervised by the deceased Iranian general Qasem Soleimani is now removed. Hezbollah supply lines are cut off. 

Some reports suggested the Radwan (elite) of Hezbollah would fight in country for Assad, along with Iranian-backed Iraqi militia, and perhaps even the army of the government of Iraq itself. This failed to materialize. Now the region is exposed to a level of unrestrained Israeli military action, as Syrian strategic weapons have been destroyed by Israeli airstrikes.

Lebanon will very likely see a heavy Israeli assault, as has been signaled by an Israeli announcement that “now is the time to liberate Lebanon.”

The dream of the Yinon Plan, of the regional expansion and domination of Israel, appears to be coming true. Israel’s regional enemies are now significantly weakened. 

READ: Why did the founder of Zionism support the genocide of Armenians?

Where was Iran?

Why did Iranian support never materalize? The Iranians expressed shock at the speed of the early advance of the artists formerly known as Al-Qaeda.

It is this impression – that the Syrian army would not fight – which may have seen them rescind their otherwise plausible offer of support. Perhaps they knew in advance, perhaps they did not. It is not clear. What is clear is that Iran is now much more isolated, and though direct lines continue to its proxies in Iraq, those to Hezbollah in Lebanon have fractured.  

A strategic revolution

The regime change in Syria is extremely significant.  

This is a strategic defeat for Russia, Iran, and perhaps even China. It imperils BRICS, as a new Israeli-led Middle East will likely see future energy and security agreements decided with – and not without – the “greatest ally of the United States.”

It is likely Israel will expand into what was formerly Syria as well as into Lebanon. Israeli air strikes in Damascus were followed by ground operations on Sunday near the Golan Heights. Israel has apparently destroyed Syrian air defense and rocket launchers, rendering it defenseless. A ground invasion has begun. 

It is fair to say that “Make Israel Great Again” is one objective here. I would suggest the United States and Israel could be henceforth termed “Usrael” to avoid confusion.

Why “again”? According to religious Zionists like Israel’s Bezalel Smotrich, a far greater territory than currently occupied has been promised to Israel by “religious sages.”

These religious sages now occupy the U.S. government, and they will likely do nothing to restrain the violent annexation of the West Bank, the elimination or expulsion of non-Jews from all the land Smotrich claims in his vision.  

This includes Gaza, the West Bank, parts of Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Eqypt, and Jordan. 

Smotrich celebrated Trump’s victory, as he accelerated his annexation plan, believing Trump would not stop him. So far, he appears to have been right. 

In recent weeks former Trump aides have warned that it is wrong for Smotrich to presume support for his annexation and expansion plan – but so far nothing from Trump himself.

How Israel’s expansion of its wars shapes U.S. support for the Greater Israel plan of annexation and expansion remains to be seen. When the wars stop, the end of Benjamin Netanyahu begins, of course, so escalation in Lebanon and invasion into Syria are good news for him. Alastair Crooke explains this in some detail here.

Israeli sources said they had been at work covertly in Syria and have admitted they have been supporting Al-Qaeda offshoots for at least a decade. The Washington Institute reported on this in 2014, and the Times of Israel followed up the next year. 

In 2016 the former head of Mossad admitted this on television:

Foreign Policy documented Israeli aid to the “rebels” in 2019. None of this happened by chance.

Yet a statement this weekend by Israel’s diaspora and antisemitism minister signals that Israeli support for the “rebels” is now replaced with a reason to invade. 

The Times of Israel reported on December 8:

Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli of the ruling Likud party says Israel should take over the buffer zone with Syria that was established in 1974, warning of the ramifications of the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria. 

‘The events in Syria are far from being a reason for celebration,’ Chikli tweets, arguing that the Islamist rebel forces have been rebranded and that, ‘bottom line, most of Syria is now controlled by subsidiaries of al-Qaeda and ISIS.’

It appears that the U.S./Israeli proxies have done the main work, and now Israel can discard them. They can be now used as an excuse to invade southwestern Syria, which is what is happening right now. 

Israeli interests may now extend to control of regional energy supplies, according to Middle East Monitor. 

In the absence of any leadership from the U.S., the driving force here is Netanyahu, whose political future relies on the escalation of wars. He is likely finished when they end, and so it is in his interest that they do not. 

READ: Former Israeli defense minister affirms IDF is committing ‘ethnic cleansing’ in Gaza

Turkey

Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan offered Assad a deal in July and Assad turned him down. Assad had been warned what would happen if he did so, and that turned out to be the case.

Turkey apparently thwarted an earlier HTS plan to regime change Assad, with Charles Lister saying the Turkish order to halt the operation in October lead to “significant tensions.”

Lister, who is a senior fellow and director of the Syria and Counterterrorism and Extremism programs at the Middle East Institute, explained the fall of Assad and the interests in the region in detail on his Substack 

He explained that the line between Turkey and the “rebels” held, and the operation was relaunched under Turkish direction on November 27. Lister’s breakdown explains all this here, and his December 7 summary of the context of the collapse of Syria, written for Foreign Policy, is a great primer. 

What might Turkey’s ambition be? A map said to be leaked and broadcasted on Turkish television in 2022 shows a “Greater Turkey” may be the goal.

The map – click here to view – shows Turkey absorbing parts of Syria, Iraq, Armenia, all of Cyprus and eastern Greece, including its second city of Thessalonika. 

Maps like this have been emerging from Erdogan’s Turkey since 2019, when Foreign Policy reported on its “irredentist … neo-Ottomanism.” This means Erdogan’s Turkish nationalism seeks to revive the old Ottoman Empire in part, restoring territories lost to Turkish control as the empire dissolved around 1923. 

Turkey appears likely to now launch an offensive in the north against the Kurds, who briefly allied with Assad to retain control of their oil rich province. The oil, of course, is run by Conoco and guarded by the U.S. military. 

Alastair Crooke has published an analysis of what he calls “Erdogan’s Kursk” – on the significance of Turkish intervention in Syria here. His is a detailed and expert view of the situation, and includes analysis on Russian interests in Ukraine and elsewhere. 

The Kyiv Post confirmed last week that Ukrainian soldiers were also assisting the “rebels” in Syria.  

Who are the new Syrians?

Syria is now run by HTS – Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham, which along with nine affiliated (and two satellite) Islamist groups leads what the U.S. government called “the rebels,” and now “the government of Syria”. 

Its leader, Mohammed al-Jolani, was hand-picked by the former ISIS chief Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi to establish ISIS in Syria in 2014. He joined Al-Qaeda in 2003, and later also established the Al-Nusra Front in Syria. This is now called “HTS,” and Jolani now wears a nice jacket and gives interviews to Western media. 

The U.S. Embassy in Syria still appears to carry a $10 million reward for the capture of the “rebel” leader “Al-Jawlani.”

The former Austrian foreign minister reportedly said the “rebels” led by Jolani were supported by a range of Western governments. Karin Kneisl, in remarks reported by Isvestia, said equipment, uniforms, drones and training of terrorists in Syria are coordinated “internationally.”

“This is a very dirty game played by several Western capitals,” she said on December 1.

President Joe Biden has announced that the former second-in-command of ISIS will receive U.S. funding. Christians in the region are in grave danger. 

The U.S. Air Force had provided air support for the “rebel” campaign. This should come as no surprise, as the U.S. under Hillary Clinton’s State Department has been arming the terrorists in Syria for over a decade.  

Al-Qaea has had its cells, known by its many names, across Syria for years. These “takfiris” – Islamist fighters who brand other Muslims as infidels – have never attacked Israel, even when Syria was swamped by another offshoot of Al-Nusra – ISIS.

Why? As the Times of Israel reported, the “rebels” may be “Islamic,” but they are not at all anti-Zionist. In fact, they say, “We love Israel.” The “rebels” thank the Israelis for bombing Hezbollah, and paving their way to victory in Syria. 

Yet there is, as is usual in regime change operations, no love for Christians.  

Historic Christians in the region have warned of the danger presented by the new regime, whose terrorist leader was presented to Americans in a sympathetic CNN broadcast last Friday.

The more you look at Syria, the more you see the process of the “last four decades of U.S. foreign policy,” as JD Vance said in May, which he described as a “disaster” as he asked “why can’t we stop genociding historic Christians?”

Vance – a Catholic himself – has revisited this position in recent days.

The war in Syria is not over. It is of enormous geostrategic significance. The winners at present appear to be the U.S./Israel and Turkey. Tensions between these interests seem hard to reconcile. 

With so much at stake for Iran, Russia, and the Gulf States – as well as for Syria’s immediate neighbors – instability in Syria will likely mean a continuation of, not an end to, the troubles in the region. There is currently no U.S. restraint on its NATO partner Turkey, nor on the actions of its ally in Israel. One order is fading in the U.S. empire, another yet to take shape. 

With regime change operations ongoing in Georgia, Romania, and a sudden crisis in South Korea, the news that Turkish troops have been sent to Kosovo may see the turmoil of this interregnum spread far beyond the Middle East. 

The world order is changing before our eyes. What form it will take relies largely on what the next U.S. administration says – and does – about a legacy of regime change which seems determined not to die.

Pray for the Christians of the region. Only God can help them now. 

U.S. citizens: Tell U.S. Senate to reject new ‘anti-terrorism’ bill

14 Comments

    Loading...