amodernmanifesto:

No serious observer of Middle Eastern politics believes that the Zionist, colonial, settler, and racist state of Israel makes a single move before consulting with its U.S. benefactors. Indeed, the Israeli army and state depend on the billions annually allocated by U.S. imperialism to maintain Israel as its chief imperial representative in the region. Israel is by far the largest recipient of U.S. military aid.

The May 2-3 and May 4-5 nighttime bombings of Syria’s International Airport and military installations reportedly killed hundreds. Israeli officials declared that the strikes were aimed at preventing Syrian aid to the Lebanese Hezbollah forces, which defeated the Israeli intervention in Lebanon several years ago.

Following the first attack, President Obama readily sided with Israel, affirming in a press interview that he fully supported Israel’s right to guard against the transfer of advanced weaponry to Hezbollah. But major media, including The New York Times (May 4), raised questions as to whether the objectives of the attack were to intervene into the conflict in Syria itself.

Indirect support to the Syrian bombing was signaled days earlier by statements from President Obama and U.S. Secretary of “Defense” Chuck Hagel, who threatened overt war against Syria if the U.S. could verify the Israeli charge that Syria had used deadly sarin gas against the rebel opposition. Obama sanctioned direct and lethal military aid when he stated last week that the use of poison gas by the Syrian government would be crossing the “red line” that provided sufficient justification for an overt U.S. intervention.

To date there has been no verification of the use of sarin gas. Traces of chlorine have been found in soil samples near a Syrian chlorine plant bombed by the rebel forces. But despite repeated accusations and innuendos, neither U.S. nor international agencies have been able to point to concrete evidence of the use of chemical weapons by Syria.

Even a May 5 Reuters report from Geneva implying that rebel forces have used sarin was not without qualification. The report stated: “UN human rights investigators have gathered testimony from casualties of Syria’s civil war and medical staff indicating that rebel forces have used the nerve agent sarin, one of the lead investigators said on Sunday.