Israel not considering any military action

Tuesday’s chemical attack in Syria increased demands in Israel to extend more humanitarian aid to those suffering in that conflict, but has not led to more calls among policy-makers for Israel to take any military action.

Former Military Intelligence head Maj.-Gen. (res.) Amos Yadlin said on Tuesday that Israel should destroy the Syrian planes that dropped the chemical bombs in Idlib, but Intelligence Minister Israel Katz said on Wednesday that Yadlin would not have been so quick to make that suggestion had he still been in his IDF role.

Katz is one of the 10 members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s security cabinet. Despite a call from Education Minister Naftali Bennett on Tuesday for Netanyahu to convene a special session of the body to rethink Israel’s Syria policies, no such meeting was held.

“Israel is weighing very carefully all the action it has to take in Syria today,” Katz said. Referring to reports that Israel has acted militarily over the last couple of years inside Syria, Katz said that this has been done strictly within the framework of defending Jerusalem’s designated redlines: preventing the transfer of advanced weaponry from Iran to Hezbollah in Lebanon, and keeping Iran and Hezbollah from creating an additional front against Israel on the Golan Heights.

Asked by The Jerusalem Post at a press conference whether Israel should move from

extending more humanitarian aid to active military involvement, Katz said: “A proposal to initiate military action inside Syria – with all its complexity, with its patrons, the Russians and others – is a proposal that I don’t think is right at this time.”

The US, he said, needs to lead an international coalition to ensure that the Syrians live up to their commitments to get rid of their chemical weapons.

“The one who needs to lead this is the one who has led in the past, the US and an international coalition,” he said. “Israel will certainly have what to say about all these matters.”

Katz said that Israel’s focus should be on extending more humanitarian assistance and ensuring that the commitment Damascus gave in 2013 to remove its chemical weapons – a commitment that it has not lived up to – will be implemented. He said Jerusalem “certainly has an interest” in Syria being rid of chemical weapons.

“A short distance from our borders, a horrible genocide has been taken place for the last several years, something that is especially shocking for us as Israelis and as Jews, “Katz said. “It is no coincidence that the slaughter is taking place in full cooperation between [Syrian President Bashar] Assad, [Hezbollah head Hassan] Nasrallah and Iran. These are the biggest crimes against humanity of the 21st century. There can be no arrangement with these types of war criminals, and I am convinced that the current government in the US has internalized that as well.”

As for what Israel should do in the wake of the recent chemical attack, Katz said he will turn to Netanyahu with a call to cooperate with international and regional actors to transfer humanitarian and medical aid to those harmed by the attack, and – where needed – to bring them to Israel for further treatment.

Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely also came out against stepping up Israel’s involvement in Syria from medical assistance to military involvement, stressing that it should act in the sphere of humanitarian aid and diplomacy.

“Israel was right these past six years in not getting militarily involved in the Syrian conflict. Nevertheless, the situation in Syria requires action in the diplomatic arena,” she said. “Israel can engage with its friends in the world to work toward putting a stop to these atrocities. Israel doesn’t turn its back on the wounded in Syria. We have treated and continue to treat wounded Syrian children in Israeli hospitals.” •