The Bombing and Its Message

"[The Israeli air attack was] a desperate attempt to raise the collapsed morale [of the Islamic State group] after the sweeping victories achieved by the Syrian Arab Army [confirming Israel’s] direct support [for Islamic State and] other terrorist organizations."
"The bombing could have] dangerous repercussions [for Israel."
"There will be] dangerous repercussions of this aggressive action to the security and stability of the region."
Syrian Army official

A Syrian facility reportedly attacked by Israeli aircraft early on Thursday, September 7, 2017 (screen capture: Twitter)

"It’s hard to get inside the mind of a dictator who torched his own country and used [a weapon of mass destruction] against his own people."
"My suspicion is that the laws of deterrence with Israel, though never foolproof, will hold simply because the level of punishment Israel would inflict on Syria would be severe, should Assad respond militarily."
"Assad’s red lines are regime survival."
"[The question is] what constitutes regime survival from his perspective and that of his Iranian allies, beyond the obvious [i.e., his own killing or the bombing of his headquarters]."
"[It] is anybody’s guess."
Bilal Saab, Senior fellow, director, defense and security, Middle East Institute, Washington

"The assumption should be that there will be some kind of reaction, and I hope that the IDF is ready."
"I hope for Assad that he’s not taking any steps that might find him in a very bad situation."
"Each side [Russia and Israel] understands the other side’s interests."
"[Israel’s relationship with Russia is] an example of good diplomacy: We don’t agree with them, but we respect them."
"This is the first time that the target which was attacked was a formal Syrian facility."
 Maj. Gen. (res.) Yaakov Amidror, former Israeli national security adviser

Members of the Syrian government forces raise the victory gesture as they ride on a tank, in the village of Kobajjep on the southwestern outskirts of Deir Ezzor province, on September 6, 2017. (AFP/George OURFALIAN)

Israeli jets pounded a chemical weapons installation, part of the Syrian military establishment vital to Bashar al-Assad's chemical weapons program in the early hours of Thursday in a 2:00 a.m. attack on the Syrian Scientific Research Centre (SSRC). Close to the Mediterranean coast in Hama Province, the facility develops and produces chemical weapons. Of course, in a 2014 agreement with the U.S. and Russia, President Assad agreed to divest Syria of its chemical stockpile. The existence of the SSRC is in direct contravention of that agreement.

Not that its existence and obvious purpose could have been a mystery to Israel or the United States, given the continued use of such chemicals in bombing civilian Syrian Sunni enclaves by the Shiite Alawite regime of Assad. Who defends the existence of the facility, describing it as a civilian institute, despite the United States identifying it as the place where the sarin gas used in the Khan Sheikhoun attack killing 83 people was produced.

The day before the aerial bombing of the chemical production facility by Israeli jets, the United Nations Commission of Inquiry had announced it was in possession of what it described as an "extensive body of information" proving responsibility for the Khan Sheikhoun attack lay directly with the Syrian regime, representing the strongest condemnation yet issued by a UN body in its linking of the chemical attacks on civilians by the Assad regime.

Back in 2014 it was revealed by a senior member of the Syrian opposition that the Syrian military was stockpiling chemicals and missiles capable of carrying chemical weapons at that site, a site off limits by the regime to international inspectors who had been working to ensure that Syria's chemical weapons were destroyed as per the agreement brokered by Vladimir Putin. In addition to which Syrian opposition forces more recently identified that site involved in joint projects with Iranian specialists in the development of missile-capable chemical weapons.

Moreover, explaining further Israel's decision to destroy that facility, at an International Institute for Counter-Terrorism summit Brig.-Gen. (res) Nitzan Nuriel advised that through this facility weapons were being supplied to both Hezbollah in Lebanon and its Gazan terrorist partner, Hamas, calling on the international community that the facility should be destroyed if it continued its support for terrorism. While the international community failed to respond to this preemptive demand, Israel honoured it.

And did so almost to the day when ten years earlier IAF bombers destroyed Syria's Deir Ezzor nuclear reactor. Israel's many unspoken-of raids on Syrian military positions and against arms shipments Israeli Intelligence believed were being shipped to Lebanon's Iranian-sponsored terror group Hezbollah -- fighting with the Syrian military along with Iranian al-Quds fighters of the Republican Guard Corps -- have taken place to prevent Hezbollah stock-piling advanced weaponry to use against Israel.

"[Three messages were carried in Thursday's bombing raid]: That Israel won't allow for empowerment and production of strategic arms. That Israel intends to enforce its red lines despite the fact hat the great powers are ignoring them. And that the presence of Russian air defence does not prevent air strikes attributed to Israel."
Amos Yadlin, former Israeli Intelligence chief

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group based in Britain, the Israeli strikes as well hit a military camp stationed usefully next to the chemical-producing facility where ground-to-ground rockets were stored and just incidentally where military personnel of both Iran and Hezbollah happened to be stationed.

Israeli jets struck a military facility in Syria's western Hama province [File photo: Getty]