It’s difficult to believe that they are achieving so much, so soon, against a well-established adversary, without assistance from a well-established and well-appointed ally.

Has anyone identified loose arms (a la — not Allah — Fast and Furious) from Libya?

Looking worse for Israel. Assad didn’t care if he got the heights back as much as the rebels will. The next leader might not be so patient and will be anxious to provoke a war.

Yes, it sucks to be Israel being the object of hatred by both the Sunnis and the Shiites. Their only hope is convincing the fundamentalist Sunnis that the Shiite heretics pose a more immediate danger to them via the Mahdi than the Jews in Israel as the Saudis do. The Shiite Mullahs of Iran made their bones during Jimmy Carter’s embassy hostage crisis. Now they intend to seize the leadership position in the Islamic World by making their bones by nuking Israel. The Sunnis have a vested political interest in NOT letting the Shiite Mullahs pull such a PR coup.

Sunnis and Shiites have been slaughtering each other for over a thousand years and that is not going to end any time soon. The trick for Israel is to appear less appealing as a PR target for Sunnis than killing Shiite heretics. The Sunnis are funding the Syrian rebels because they want to take down a Shiite ally, thus isolating Iran. If the Israeli’s are smart they will fully fund the Kurdish rebels in Norther Iraq and Iran to advance the cause of Kurdistan. This will keep the Shiites busy and make the Sunni Fundamentalists less interested in making their bones by striking Israel first but instead also support the Kurds as this hurts their arch enemy, the Shiite State of Iran.

If any of you want to have a better bead on the M.E. situation you have to understand the fanatical hatred between the Sunnis and the Shiites. If you think Palestinians are rabid for their hatred of Jews, then you begin to have an inkling of what the Sunnis and Shiites feel for each other. The bulk of the terrorism in Iraq prior to the surge was mostly Sunni on Shiite attacks and Sunni on Kurd violence. This is why Saddam Hussein (a Sunni) supposedly a secular Ba’athist repeatedly had incredibly bloody wars with Shiite Iran. He exploited the Sunni/Shiite hatred to maintain support of his own brutish regime.

For context , disregard modern borders and have a peek at the western meditteranean circa 1000 BC .

The only change is Israel as a nation. Anatolia & Assyria were then separated by pesky Judaic states cutting off the great arc to Egypt & beyond.

AlexanderThe Great , The Romans , Christianity ,Islam have left their mark but still the dream lives on.

Turkey wants to control the arc now . They have Benghazi & western Libya . Egypt will be a vassal state .Turkey just wants the coastal strip & leave the rest to theEgyptians who have done nothing much for 3000 years.

The biggest threats to Turkish Caliphate are ancient foes Persia & The Judaic Kingdoms.

The only difference is that Turkey is NATO . NATO has already given them Libya & enabled them in Syria .

It may be that the Biblical angel will need to save Israel from the Assyrian coming down like a wolf on the fold with their colors gleaming in purple and gold…….

Another ancient Kingdom China may be the only worldly hope for Israel.

Mark my words… “The big one is coming and the fuse will be the Mideast.”

I don’t like it but it’s hard to ignore the writing on the wall and that’s all directed against Israel which in turn means us.

Of course, that might be part of O’bammy’s grand plan, (aka Roosevelts’s WW II), to restart the economy.

Hows that for negative thinking and assessment???

Allah Akbar???
If the Rebels are singing that, why should I care who prevails?