According to several columns by Middle East correspondents:
Israel is in support of ISIL with the objective of ousting Syria’s Assad regime, which helps to resource Hezbollah, a Shiite militia that is mainly active in southern Lebanon, resisting further advances by Israel into Lebanese national territory.
For its part, Hezbollah is actively combating ISIL in an effort to maintain the Assad regime in power.
For our part, the U.S. professes to be hostile to ISIL, Syria’s Assad regime and Hezbollah. In fact, we have military advisers on the ground in Iraq assisting in the war against ISIL. We are also waging airstrikes against ISIL in Syria. And we have been resourcing insurgent groups against Assad. With Assad out, we would fracture the Iran/Iraq/Syria axis that resources Hezbollah in Lebanon and would thus enhance Israel’s security.
Confusing? You bet! To add to this tangled web, in affecting regime change in Iraq (under George W. Bush), we counterproductively created a greater Iran. (Iran and Iraq are both majority Shiite.) That is, we strengthened the axis that we want to disable.
Several questions emerge from this confounding mess of conflicting U.S. foreign policy initiatives. One of the most obvious is: In what sense is Israel our ally, as our Republican candidates insist?
ISIL is clearly our enemy, having executed U.S. journalists and relief workers and having announced intentions to attack us here. Yet Israel sees ISIL as a tool to get rid of Assad.
By that paradigm, Israel is in a sense sided against us. And, finally, another question begs: What specifically has Israel done for us, as our ally? I have an answer: nothing, really.
Tom Wright
Aztec
