Thursday, September 18, 2014

IS' Brother in Arms: The Nusra Front- Rebels of Syria of Al Qaeda

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                       

About 7,000 strong, The Nusra Front (Jabhat al-Nusra) is a branch of al-Qaeda and operates in Syria and Lebanon.  They are mostly Syrian fighters found all over Syria.  Israel's involvement with them concerns the Golan Heights.  Two years ago Nusra was found there and their numbers have been growing, especially in the past few months as IS terrorists took control of NE Syria.  The Golan Heights hold a nature preserve.  They took the Syrian air base at Tabqa and declared Raqqa as their caliphate's capital.  They pushed Nusra into the south and Damascus is in the southwest.  Now, Nusra are one of the rebel groups.  Is Obama intending on arming them?
                                                                             
Israel's problem is preventing IS from taking control of the Syrian side of the 100-kilometer ( 62 miles) long stretch of border on the Golan Heights that has had no problems for the past 40 years.

"Israel doesn't want the Islamists to control the border area, and prefers Assad's army as the Devil it already knows. "  

Also backing Assad are Hezbollah, the Lebanon based terror group that is a Shi'ite proxy of Iran.
Two days after Operation Protective Edge ended, extremist rebel forces minus IS fought Assad's soldiers and its Hezbollah and Iranian allies and took over the Syrian side of the Quneitra border crossing with Israel.  300 Syrian rebels hit the compound and the tiny Syrian army force ran away.

Quneitra is important to the UN personnel and others.  Druze living in the Golan Heights cross there as it is the only official crossing point.  They need it to attend university and find girlfriends in Syria.  Farmers cross there to sell their produce to Syria.
                                                                           
Al-Nusra rebels captured Fiji peacekeepers in the demilitarized zone near the border on August 28th. The Figis were there to ensure that Israel and Syria keep their cease-fire agreements.  Nusra rebels are al-Qaeda fighters and they hate Israel, waving their black flags and also have the goal of creating a caliphate.  Their thing is to kidnap foreigners.  IS has a small force of terrorists in some of the villages near the border. They are being watched.  Israel shot down a hostile drone that was violating their air space.  It could have come from Assad, Hezbollah or Iran, probably photographing the rebel position on the border crossing.
 
Hoping to give such terrorists reason not to hate Israel, Israel did what they always do, saved these Syrian lives like they did for Arabs in the 1970's on the Lebanese border with their Good neighbor fence policy.  They offered their humanitarian aid to Syrian refugees in camps in Jordan and Turkey.  

Now everyone's enemy is IS.  It's making strange bed fellows.

Resource: Magazine:  The Jerusalem Report , September 22, 2014, pp  16-17.
Novel:  Messages from a Syrian Jew Trapped in Egypt, part about Golan Heights true story with true facts about Syrian Civil War, main character "Victor" , only ending is altered.  by Nadene Goldfoot.


















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