Two stories came out of the Middle East in the last 24 hours the include a surprise or two.
First, there are reports of a massive explosion at the base in central Syria that is home to more Iranian troops than any other. There was media speculation that this was an attack by Israel. The Israelis, following their normal procedure, would neither confirm nor deny involvement of their forces. Then came the surprise: Hezbollah announced that the explosion came when some items stored in a warehouse on the base blew up. There is no word yet on casualties, but from the reported magnitude of the explosion there are likely some.
So why is this report a surprise? Normally, Hezbollah blames everything on Israel as does Iran. Losing what is obviously a major cache of weapons and ammunition is an embarrassment for Iran and Hezbollah. One would think that they would love to cover that embarrassment by blaming the loss on their enemy Israel, whether or not the story is true. So why would Hezbollah now claim that this was just an accident? Maybe the Iranians don't want to admit just how defenseless they are in Syria against Israel's air power. After the USA, France and the UK demonstrated just how ineffective the Russian anti-missile systems defending Syria truly are, it may be that Hezbollah doesn't want to admit that its forces are sitting ducks if hit from the air. Of course, that doesn't mean that it was an Israeli attack that led to the explosion. This may sound strange, but Hezbollah might actually be telling the truth; that would be different indeed.
Second, Israel announced that it had discovered and destroyed another of those tunnels built by Hamas from Gaza into Israel. This tunnel was located at a site at which there have been weekly "protests" by Gazans for the last month. It's a strange juxtaposition. Hamas claims and the world media reports that the people of Gaza are protesting against their poor living conditions in these weekly events. Meanwhile, fifty feet below the surface, Hamas is taking tens of millions of dollars of money it received to aid the population of Gaza and using it to build this tunnel which has now been destroyed. I have yet to see anyone in the media pointing that out.
First, there are reports of a massive explosion at the base in central Syria that is home to more Iranian troops than any other. There was media speculation that this was an attack by Israel. The Israelis, following their normal procedure, would neither confirm nor deny involvement of their forces. Then came the surprise: Hezbollah announced that the explosion came when some items stored in a warehouse on the base blew up. There is no word yet on casualties, but from the reported magnitude of the explosion there are likely some.
So why is this report a surprise? Normally, Hezbollah blames everything on Israel as does Iran. Losing what is obviously a major cache of weapons and ammunition is an embarrassment for Iran and Hezbollah. One would think that they would love to cover that embarrassment by blaming the loss on their enemy Israel, whether or not the story is true. So why would Hezbollah now claim that this was just an accident? Maybe the Iranians don't want to admit just how defenseless they are in Syria against Israel's air power. After the USA, France and the UK demonstrated just how ineffective the Russian anti-missile systems defending Syria truly are, it may be that Hezbollah doesn't want to admit that its forces are sitting ducks if hit from the air. Of course, that doesn't mean that it was an Israeli attack that led to the explosion. This may sound strange, but Hezbollah might actually be telling the truth; that would be different indeed.
Second, Israel announced that it had discovered and destroyed another of those tunnels built by Hamas from Gaza into Israel. This tunnel was located at a site at which there have been weekly "protests" by Gazans for the last month. It's a strange juxtaposition. Hamas claims and the world media reports that the people of Gaza are protesting against their poor living conditions in these weekly events. Meanwhile, fifty feet below the surface, Hamas is taking tens of millions of dollars of money it received to aid the population of Gaza and using it to build this tunnel which has now been destroyed. I have yet to see anyone in the media pointing that out.
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