Yves here. This post describes the rising opposition in the US and around the world to Israel land grabs. Yet it is clear that anything other than the use of raw force against Israel, and ultimately the US, could turn the tide. Sadly only the plucky Houthis seem up to the challenge.
By Nicolas J. S. Davies, an independent journalist, a researcher for CODEPINK and the author of Blood on Our Hands: The American Invasion and Destruction of Iraq, and, with Medea Benjamin, of War in Ukraine: Making Sense of a Senseless Conflict, published by OR Books, with an updated and expanded edition due in March 2025
The United States, Turkey and Israel all responded to the fall of the Assad government in Damascus by launching bombing campaigns on Syria. Israel also attacked and destroyed most of the Syrian Navy in port at Latakia, and invaded Syria from the long-occupied Golan Heights, advancing to within 16 miles of the capital, Damascus.
The United States said that its bombing campaign targeted remnants of Islamic State in the east of the country, hitting 75 targets with 140 bombs and missiles, according to Air Force Times.
A long-standing force of 900 U.S. troops illegally occupy that part of Syria, partly to divert Syria’s meagre oil revenues to the U.S.’s Kurdish allies and prevent the Syrian government regaining that source of revenue. U.S. bombing badly damaged Syria’s oil infrastructure during the war with the Islamic State, but Russia has been ready to help Syria restore full output whenever it recovers control of that area. U.S. forces in Syria have been under attack by various Syrian militia forces, not just the Islamic State, with at least 127 attacks since October 2023.
Meanwhile, Turkiyë is conducting airstrikes, drone strikes and artillery fire as part of a new offensive by a militia it formed in 2017 under the Orwellian guise of the “Syrian National Army” to invade and occupy parts of Rojava, the autonomous Kurdish enclave in northeast Syria.
Israel, however, launched a much broader bombing campaign than Turkey or the U.S., with about 600 airstrikes on post-Assad Syria in the first eight days of its existence. Without waiting to see what form of government the political transition in Syria leads to, Israel set about methodically destroying its entire military infrastructure, to ensure that whatever government comes to power will be as defenseless as possible.
Israel claims its new occupation of Syrian territory is a temporary move to ensure its own security. But while Israel bombed Syria 220 times over the past year, killing about 300 people, Syria showed restraint and did not retaliate for those attacks.
The pattern of Israeli history has been that land grabs like this usually turn into long-term illegal Israeli annexations, as in the Golan Heights and the Occupied Palestinian Territories. That will surely be the case with Israel’s new strategic base on top of Mount Hermon, overlooking Damascus and the surrounding area, unless a new Syrian government or international diplomacy can force Israel to withdraw.
Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Iran, Russia and the UN have all joined the global condemnation of the new Israeli assault on Syria. Geir Pedersen, the UN Special Envoy to Syria, called Israel’s military actions “highly irresponsible,” and UN peacekeepers have removed Israeli flags from newly-occupied Syrian territory.
The Qatari Foreign Ministry called Israel’s actions “a dangerous development and a blatant attack on Syria’s sovereignty and unity as well as a flagrant violation of international law… that will lead the region to further violence and tension.”
The Saudi Foreign Ministry reiterated that the Golan Heights is an occupied Arab territory, and said that Israel’s actions confirmed “Israel’s continued violation of the rules of international law and its determination to sabotage Syria’s chances of restoring its security, stability and territorial integrity.”
The only country in the world that has ever recognized Israel’s annexation of the Golan Heights is the United States, under the first Trump administration, and it is part of Biden’s disastrous legacy in the Middle East that that he failed to stand up for international law and reverse Trump’s recognition of that illegal Israeli annexation.
As people all over the world watch Israel ignore the rules of international law that every country in the world is committed to live by, we are confronted by the age-old question of how to respond to a country that systematically ignores and violates these rules. The foundation of the UN Charter is the agreement by all countries to settle their differences diplomatically and peacefully, instead of by the threat or use of military force.
As Americans, we should start by admitting that our own country has led the way down this path of war and militarism, perpetuating the scourge of war that the UN Charter was intended to provide a peaceful alternative to.
As the United States became the leading economic power in the world in the 20th century, it also built up dominant military power. Despite its leading role in creating the United Nations and the rules of the UN Charter and the Geneva Conventions, it came to see strict compliance with those rules as an obstacle to its own ambitions, from the UN Charter’s prohibition against the threat or use of military force to the Geneva Conventions’ universal protections for prisoners of war and civilians.
In its “war on terror,” including its wars on Iraq and other countries, the United States flagrantly and systematically violated these bedrock foundations of world order. It is a fundamental principle of all legal systems that the powerful must be held accountable as well as the weak and the vulnerable. A system of laws that the wealthy and powerful can ignore cannot claim to be universal or just, and is unlikely to stand the test of time.
Today, our system of international law faces exactly this problem. The U.S. presumption that its overwhelming military power permits it to violate international law with impunity has led other countries, especially U.S. allies but also Russia, to apply the same opportunistic standards to their own behavior.
In 2010, an Amnesty International report on European countries that hosted CIA “black site” torture chambers called on U.S. allies in Europe not to join the United States as another “accountability-free zone” for war crimes. But now the world is confronting a U.S. ally that has not just embraced, but doubled down on, the U.S. presumption that dominant military power can trump the rule of law.
The Israeli government refuses to comply with international legal prohibitions against deliberately killing women and children, by military force and by deprivation; seizing foreign territory; and bombing other countries. Shielded from international accountability behind the U.S. Security Council veto, Israel thumbs its nose at the world’s impotence to enforce international law, confident that nobody will stop it from using its deadly and destructive war machine wherever and however it pleases.
So the world’s failure to hold the United States accountable for its war crimes has led Israel to believe that it too can escape accountability, and U.S. complicity in Israeli war crimes, especially the genocide in Gaza, has inevitably reinforced that belief.
U.S. responsibility for Israel’s lawlessness is compounded by the conflict of interest in its dual role as both Israel’s military superpower ally and weapons supplier and the supposed mediator of the lopsided “peace process” between Israel and Palestine, whose inherent flaws led to Hamas’s election victory in 2006 and now to the current crisis.
Instead of recognizing its own conflict of interest and deferring to intervention by the UN or other neutral parties, the U.S. has jealously guarded its monopoly as the sole mediator between Israel and Palestine, using this position to grant Israel total freedom of action to commit systematic war crimes. If this crisis is ever to end, the world cannot allow the U.S. to continue in this role.
While the United States bears a great deal of responsibility for this crisis, U.S. officials remain in collective denial over the criminal nature of Israel’s actions and their instrumental role in Israel’s crimes. The systemic corruption of U.S. politics severely limits the influence of the majority of Americans who support a ceasefire in Gaza, as pro-Israel lobbying groups buy the unconditional support of American politicians and attack the few who stand up to them.
Despite America’s undemocratic political system, its people have a responsibility to end U.S. complicity in genocide, which is arguably the worst crime in the world, and people are finding ways to bring pressure to bear on the U.S. government:
Members of CODEPINK, Jewish Voice For Peace and Palestinian-, Arab-American and other activist groups are in Congressional offices and hearings every day; constituents in California are suing two members of Congress for funding genocide; students are calling on their universities to divest from Israel and U.S. arms makers; activists and union members are identifying and picketing companies and blocking ports to stop weapons shipments to Israel; journalists are rebelling against censorship; U.S. officials are resigning; people are on hunger strike; others have committed suicide.
It is also up to the UN and other governments around the world to intervene, and to hold Israel and the United States accountable for their actions. A growing international movement for an end to the genocide and decades of illegal occupation is making progress. But it is excruciatingly slow given the appalling human cost and the millions of Palestinian lives at stake.
Israel’s international propaganda campaign to equate criticism of its war crimes with antisemitism poisons political discussion of Israeli war crimes in the United States and some other countries.
But many countries are making significant changes in their relations with Israel, and are increasingly willing to resist political pressures and propaganda tropes that have successfully muted international calls for justice in the past. A good example is Ireland, whose growing trade relations with Israel, mainly in the high-tech sector, formerly made it the fourth largest importer of Israeli products in the world in 2022.
Ireland is now one of 14 countries who have officially intervened to support South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) – the others are Belgium, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Egypt, Libya, the Maldives, Mexico, Nicaragua, Palestine, Spain and Turkiyë. Israel reacted to Ireland’s intervention in the case by closing its embassy in Dublin, and now Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar has smeared Ireland’s Taoiseach (prime minister) Simon Harris as “antisemitic.”
The Taoiseach’s spokesperson replied that Harris “will not be responding to personalized and false attacks, and remains focused on the horrific war crimes being perpetrated in Gaza, standing up for human rights and international law and reflecting the views of so many people across Ireland who are so concerned at the loss of innocent, civilian lives.”
If the people of Palestine can stand up to bombs, missiles and bullets day after day for over a year, the very least that political leaders around the world can do is stand up to Israeli name-calling, as Simon Harris is doing.
Spain is setting an example on international efforts to halt the supply of weapons to Israel, with an arms embargo and a ban on weapons shipments transiting Spanish ports, including the U.S. naval base at Rota, which the U.S. has leased since it formed a military alliance with Spain’s Franco dictatorship in 1953.
Spain has already refused entry to two Maersk-owned ships transporting weapons from North Carolina to Israel, while dockworkers in Spain, Belgium, Greece, India and other countries have refused to load weapons and ammunition onto ships bound for Israel.
The UN General Assembly (UNGA) has passed resolutions for a ceasefire in Gaza; an end to the post-1967 Israeli occupation; and for Palestinian statehood. The General Assembly’s 10th Emergency Special Session on the Israel-Palestine conflict under the Uniting for Peace process has been ongoing since 1997.
The General Assembly should urgently use these Uniting For Peace powers to turn up the pressure on Israel and the United States. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has provided the legal basis for stronger action, ruling that the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories Israel invaded in 1967 is illegal and must be ended, and that the massacre in Gaza appears to violate the Genocide Convention.
Inaction is inexcusable. By the time the ICJ issues a final verdict on its genocide case, millions may be dead. The Genocide Convention is an international commitment to prevent genocide, not just to pass judgment after the fact. The UN General Assembly has the power to impose an arms embargo, a trade boycott, economic sanctions, a peacekeeping force, or to do whatever it takes to end the genocide.
When the UN General Assembly first launched its boycott campaign against apartheid South Africa in 1962, not a single Western country took part. Many of those same countries will be the last to do so against Israel today. But the world cannot wait to act for the blessing of complacent wealthy countries who are themselves complicit in genocide.
It is pretty clear that Syria will be mainly partitioned into three parts. The Turks in the north, the Kurds in the east and the Sunnis in the south. Israel will occupy part of Sunni land where Israel sees fit. There may be small enclaves of Alawites and Christians.
This is what balance of power looks like in Syria.
On the other hand, the blogger known as “Big Serge” puts forth a convincing argument that those partition schemes are economically unviable, and hence would result in permanent instability and war.
Yes. One of the main reasons that the Assad government fell was because of the loss of oil revenues, combined with US inspired sanctions.
Whence Three Wise Men now?
Norway, having been drawn in the same qualifying group for the next soccer World Cup, is refusing to play against Israel, and demands Israel be expelled from FIFA competitions. Slovenia is now demanding Israel be expelled from the Eurovision Song Contest. Small steps, maybe, but one can only hope that they lead to larger steps to ostracise Israel from the worldwide international community and make it the pariah state its actions deserve. However, as long as the bought and paid for by the lobby US and UK politicians continue to dance to the Zionist tune, nothing will fundamentally change, despite ever increasing grassroots horror and protests among their citizens.
All those manifestations of cultural or sportive rejection will be simply dismissed as antisemitism.
Israel will only start changing its ways upon either application of sheer military violence or of economic arm-twisting of a nature that risks making the zionist state unviable.
In the latter category, Europe granted several privileges regarding trade and participation in EU R&D projects (with attendant subsidies) — and there are the bountiful financial aid packages provided by the USA and Germany. I however doubt any of this will be revoked.
Thank you, both.
During the Brexit negotiations, once, and once only, was the relationship with the EU enjoyed by Israel mentioned. It made me wonder who shut up the person and how.
A couple of days ago on X, someone asked if Toby Starmer was planning to join the IOF.
IMO the Zionist state is unviable without the massive support of West, both material and diplomatic. So it’s not like someone needs to stop Israel, all what is required is the West stop carrying it forward. Without West Israel would not be able to invaded even Gaza.
In the long run, we are all dead, and that’s especially true for Israel. So I’m optimist.
Things will change when the ICJ ruling finding Israel guilty of genocide and ethnic cleansing will be hammered. In that moment Israel better start playing hockey and baseball and American football, because these will be the only sporting competitions Israelis will be allowed to participate in, within the US.
A couple of days ago, the WSJ published a brutal reality check on Biden’s declining cognitive faculties. Indeed, we have seen how the WH has kept Biden under wraps and away from the public, or worse yet, away from reporters. That being the case, who’s been running foreign policy? The Lobby has managed, so far, against public opinion, not only to keep American tax payers financed lethal weapons and bombs flowing while the Gaza genocide is streamed live.
In college and university campuses, the Lobby has been persecuting anyone who opposes the genocide as antisemitic and its oligarch members have pushed out the presidents of Harvard and U Penn. That’s unsustainable.
So far, the larger Middle East powers have remained silent in the face of Israeli atrocities and looting. Will that hold? Not so sure, though Israel will continue disrupting the region by interfering with the Kurds and destabilizing Turkey, for one. International fugitive, Netanyahu seems full of himself right now, knowing that Trump will probably “cede” any territories they want. But, this won’t end well. We’re at the point of an Edward I moment, where abusive overkill will be call to account.
“Today, our system of international law faces exactly this problem. The U.S. presumption that its overwhelming military power permits it to violate international law with impunity has led other countries, especially U.S. allies but also Russia, to apply the same opportunistic standards to their own behavior.”
Wrong. Russia is not seeking to be a mirror image of the US but the assumption that they are underlies the insanity that is taking place in Ukraine.
Nor do we need to entertain fantasies that the Israeli tail is really wagging the US dog because the great majority of Americans are barely aware of what this is all about and would no doubt gladly walk away should it become more obvious.
Where Israeli ambitions really find their receptive audience is in the ruling classes of this country and Europe since the notion of the few controlling the many is their fundamental premise. The Israeli state–which seems to have turned into a jet bomber with a country attached–is an extension of this worldwide class war which is no doubt why the British wanted to put it there in the first place. Whatever it has to do with oil or resources–which the Arabs are happy to sell us without any military threats–is strictly secondary.
So when the 9 1/2 million officially Jewish and Israeli citizens gain control of “Greater Israel” what will they do with it since they will be even more outnumbered than they are already? More bombers and bombs? For that they will need that US ruling class to stay in control and they are already on thin ice.
Carolinian I had the same misgivings when reading the post, ty for expanding upon them.
The great majority of Americans are barely aware of anything outside the media pablum fed to them. Basically, the United States has been conquered, along with a substantial portion of Western Europe and (of course) Palestine, by “Virtual Country X”, the network of upper class heavy hitters that dictate to the national governments and their military/industrial/media/education arms what policies should be implemented–despite the negative outcomes for the vast majorities of their populations. The extreme upper class in these subject nations has a shared culture, many family interrelationships, a shared palette of religious doctrines that can be used to give the necessary actions a pleasing moral coloration, and shared disregard for those outside the circle of class interests and intellectual fashions that uphold their rule.
The problem with articles like this is that the authors (who are not experts in the region) ramble all around, describing handwaving activities, without actually focusing on what the big issue actually is. What’s that? Well, for the Zionists, this is the Big One, the once in fifty years opportunity to take advantage of the weakness of Hezbollah and Iran, Russia’s preoccupation with Ukraine and the West’s internal problems and the political transition in the US to construct the Greater Israel, with the boundaries and areas of control that the Zionists have always wanted. The Zionists are in this for the long term: short-term pain for long-term gain. Who, in 2050, will remember the UNGA Resolutions, the twitter-storms, the handwaving and the performative boycotts? Israel, so far as I can see, has already won, or at least has put itself in a position where only an improbably large alliance of brute force can dislodge it. Economic damage, emigration etc. are a small price to pay, and will in any case probably be reversed. The obvious answer to the question in the title is “no-one.”
In any event, Syria is an inherently unstable country, difficult to keep together at the best of times. If you are interested in the problems of the country itself, rather than the faffing around of others, here are a few things you might want to read. This article from Unherd is surprisingly good on the political, economic and ethnic strains that will make the reconstruction of any unitary Syria extremely difficult. https://unherd.com/2024/12/syria-is-doomed-to-instability/
Meanwhile for a Syrian view (in French but easily translatable) there’s an interview with the Syrian intellectual Yassin al-Haj Saleh, imprisoned for membership of the Communist Party in Assad’s jails for sixteen years, but equally opposed to the Islamists. His argument is that between those two forces, any kind of real political culture in Syria has been destroyed and there is nothing to reconstruct a society with. https://www.lorientlejour.com/article/1440636/-la-societe-syrienne-a-ete-decivilisee-et-depolitisee-trop-longtemps-.html
And here, from the same source is an article on the potential Israeli-Turksih dismemberment of the country, as seen from the region. https://www.lorientlejour.com/article/1440985/israel-vs-turquie-vers-un-clash-des-deux-poids-lourds-regionaux-.html
Aurelien, I have to ask, and forgive me for not knowing this about you (I follow your substack newsletter even but don’t think I’ve seen you speak to how and why you consider yourself an expert on the region) but are you an Israeli or Zionist by any chance? I ask because in my experience no Zionist I’ve ever spoken with has not used the argument form of starting with a discrediting and discounting of people for not being experts on or from the Middle East. So much so that I almost recognize a Zionist by this standard opening. Also, isn’t this an ad baculum?
Meanwhile, I would push back on your argument that Israel has already won. There is more to the world than just territory, occupation and military force. And the world of ideas is not airy fairy empty handwaving nothings. The article describes a momentum of soft power building against both the US and Israel which will presumaby reach a point where there will be consequences for both the US and Israel. Soft power has historically translated into impacts.
This is also a Big One for the world in that a new evil has arisen which puts the principles of International Law, especially the Genocide Convention, and the legitimacy of Israel and the United States, to the test. Israel has effectively placed the world in a predicament – it must give up on morality, on the sanctity of human life, on religion and religious values, on law even, or else evil and genocide prevail. I don’t think we’re at a point where the world is ready to give up on its justice, morality, religion and law – the airy fairy handwaving stuff.
And: as far as I can tell, the Israeli economy is having some difficulty, the population has diminished significantly through war inspired emigration, and population displacement has caused quite a degree of internal chaos. Further, as you say ‘soft power’ – even Jewish people living outside Isreal, especially younger ones, are becoming disillusioned with zionist excesses (a mild description). The various ICJ etc. motions are a significant advance, although as Yves says, far too slow to save many Palestinians, to the eternal shame of the ‘west’. In the long run, I believe that this colonialist enterprise is doomed by its own contradictions. They just do not have the resources to expand in the way they wish to, and Turkey will be a real competitor in the area, with similar goals.
“Israel, so far as I can see, has already won, or at least has put itself in a position where only an improbably large alliance of brute force can dislodge it.
Indeed. And that’s not going to happen as long as countries adhere to the mind-*&^% that self-defense is escalation only when they do it. Very much a reflection of centuries of mind-&%$#.
The US can bring Israeli adventurism to a stop by cutting off the supply of bombs etc., but before that the supply of aviation fuel. Of course, the US chooses not to do so. There are other scenarios but they all result in the utter destruction of Israel. There are those there who do not deserve that.
Communities and countries are getting picked off one by one (destruction – and there are those there who do not deserve that) as they wait for the USA to stop arming Israel.
The utter destruction of Israel is a necessary step on the way to the Return of Christ to rule His Thousand Year Kingdom of Judgement and Righteousness here on earth.
The Likudians and the Kachists think they are manipulating the American Rapturaniacs and Armageddonites into supporting Greatest Israel. The American Rapturaniacs and Armageddonites think they are manipulating Greatest Israel into getting itself exterminated by God and Jesus themselves as part of Jesus’s triumphant return to earth.
Time will tell who was more successfully manipulating whom here, and to what final outcome.
I would also add one more point to my comment (currently in moderation). I don’t think we should underestimate the power of the parallels and similarities between the brutal suffering of modern day Palestinians and those of Christ in his own time. The current plight of Palestine is probably tugging at the heartstrings of Christians everywhere. “Truly I tell you, whatever you did to one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did to me” (Matthew 25:40). The Sermon on the Mount was speaking directly about a people who in Jesus’ time were also suffering helplessly, also starving and also suffering brutal tyrannical rule, much like modern day Palestinians. The situation is as if Christ’s message is reaching beyond his own time. I think this will come into play despite the evangelist take.
And by the way, Christ was a Palestinian Jew.
yes. Aurelien also makes the assumption that only fellow Zionists (soft or otherwise) are in it for the long run. as you and others elucidate this goes both ways. those Zionists who have already jumped ship once things heated up may be joined in a cascade. Colonized people the world over live in the long run. Our leadership may kowtow to the West but the people below slowly rise to a boil, our survival based upon this.
CODEPINK: a codeword for handwaving. Watching them emerge and develop in aughts they were clearly saying things that needed public airing and nobody was saying. I read the first three paragraphs and see that the author is belaboring the obvious. I scan the rest of the piece and I’m reminded of why the League of Nations circled the drain. Nothing new here.
What about the likely verdict of ICJ that Israel is guilty of genocide and ethnic cleansing? Or the arrest warranst for war crimes on Bibi and Gallant (Bibi didn’t participate at the 80th aniversary memorializing the liberation of Auschwitz due to the arrest warrant on his head)?
People will remember and the evidence based blood libel will stay alive for another 1,000 years.
Or you think that the international laws will be trashed and we reset to pre-Westfalian times?
Since the Israelis are sticking around in Syria, how are they going to pay for it. You need thousands of IDF soldiers along with a similar number so that those troop can be rotated. Then there is all that heavy military equipment that they are going to need. And then there are the bases along with the inevitable walls. Sure the Settlers will be going into those regions but they will hardly put their hands in their pocket to pay for any of it. The Israeli state owes them after all. I wonder which country they will be looking to pay for all of this.
Thanks. The fundamental point is that, for all the talk of Israel “winning” and Israeli power, they are a tiny country that by definition (now, with Jewish supremacy laws) lacks the population to match its ambitions. And a segment of that already small population is not even willing to become soldiers to carry out these ambitions. To some of us the whole thing looks like a fantasy based on 2000 lb bombs.
Today’s Big Serge makes much of Israel’s might makes right success but taking down its neighbors doesn’t change the reality of a country that is so small it needs to get along with those neighbors rather than conquer or control them. There are a lot of smart people in that tiny country. Rational? Maybe not so much.
We are in the Near East and Israel is the 21st century equivalent of the Assyrian empire some 3000 years ago, relying upon military violence to expand its realm and maintain it under control. It can work for a long time as long as adversaries are divided — and the power out of Persia does not intervene in force…
And from some long forgotten depth, this line swims to the surface: “And the Assyrian came down like a wolf on the fold.”
The Destruction of Sennacherib
The Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold,
And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold;
And the sheen of their spears was like stars on the sea,
When the blue wave rolls nightly on deep Galilee.
show
—Lord Byron
Nothing poetic about the current style of conquest -+ or the ancient one, either, I suspect, outside of the Romantic cast of mind
“I wonder which country they will be looking to pay for all of this.”
Well, you know the answer to that, I imagine – rhetorical question!
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/21/world/middleeast/iran-economy-energy-crisis.html
Iran’s Energy Crisis Hits ‘Dire’ Point as Industries Are Forced to Shut Down
And if some of this report is hype, it is still much to consider.
As Aurelien said, in the short to medium term, the answer is “no-one”. In the longer term, it will be Iran, I guess, once Israel escalates too far.
Jesus wept.
The corruption of the system of international law created post WWII began immediately after the General Assemblies Resolution 181, the ‘Partition Plan for Palestine’. The plan had multiple components, forbid the use of force and called for compensation for any relocated people. It required and called for the Security Council to implement it. I have yet to find a granular treatment on what discussions occurred behind the scenes at the Security Council, on the resolution, but it DID NOT issue its own binding resolution. It is not shown as even taking it up. On that, my view is somewhat cynical.
Instead, beginning in March of 1948 the Zionists simply initiated their own plan by force, Plan Dalet, and drove 750,000 Palestinians from their homes and from their lands.
Their was no legitimate process in the founding of Israel, or of its conduct since.
It is becoming evident that the technology to make accurate missiles impervious to interception will become accessible to all Mideast nations. There is nothing to stop Turkey, Egypt, or Pakistan from building enough advanced missiles to reduce Israel to rubble. Iran probably already has such an arsenal. Israel will keep aggrandizing itself until defeated by a nation willing to make a massive sustained missile attack. It is just a matter of time.