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Israel Steps Up Syria Strikes, Says Turkey Aims for ‘Protectorate’
A member of Syrian security forces stands guard at a damaged site, after Israel carried out an air strike on the Syrian capital Damascus on Thursday, as reported by Syria’s state news agency, in Damascus, Syria, March 13, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Firas Makdesi
Israel stepped up airstrikes on Syria overnight, declaring the attacks a warning to the new Islamist rulers in Damascus as it accused their Turkish allies on Thursday of trying to turn the country into a Turkish protectorate.
The strikes, targeting air bases, a site near Damascus and the southwest, put renewed focus on Israeli concerns about the Islamists who deposed Bashar al-Assad in December, with Israeli officials viewing them as a rising threat at their border.
Also suspicious of Ankara’s sway over Damascus, Israel has been working to advance its goals in Syria since Assad was toppled, seizing ground in the southwest, declaring a willingness to protect the Druze minority, lobbying Washington for a weak state, and blowing up much of the Syrian military’s heavy weapons and equipment in the days after he fell.
The Israeli army said its forces operating in the southwest overnight killed several militants who opened fire on them.
Syria‘s state news agency SANA said that Israeli shelling had killed nine people in the area, during what it described as the deepest incursion yet by Israeli troops in the area.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said that the airstrikes late on Wednesday evening were “a clear message and a warning for the future – we will not allow the security of the State of Israel to be harmed.”
Katz said in a statement that Israel‘s armed forces would remain in buffer zones within Syria and act against threats to its security, warning Syria‘s government it would pay a heavy price if it allowed forces hostile to Israel to enter.
Reflecting Israeli concerns about Turkish influence in the new Syria, Foreign Minister Gideon Saar accused Ankara of playing a “negative role” there, in Lebanon and other regions.
“They are doing their utmost to have Syria as a Turkish protectorate. It’s clear that is their intention,” he told a press conference in Paris.
The Syrian foreign ministry said the Israeli strikes were an unjustified escalation aimed at destablising the country, calling on the international community to put pressure on Israel to “stop its aggression.”
Israel bombed Syria frequently when the country was governed by Assad, targeting the foothold established by his ally Iran during the civil war.
AIR BASE DESTROYED
The strikes late on Wednesday night were some of the most intensive Israeli attacks in Syria since Assad was toppled.
The Syrian foreign ministry said Israel struck five separate areas within a 30-minute window, resulting in the near-complete destruction of the Hama air base and wounding dozens of civilians and soldiers.
The Israeli military said it had struck remaining military capabilities at air bases in Hama and Homs provinces, in addition to remaining military infrastructure in the Damascus area, where Syrian media and officials said the vicinity of a scientific research facility was hit.
In Hama, a Syrian military source told Reuters a dozen strikes demolished the runways, tower, arms depots and hangars at the military airport. “Israel has completely destroyed Hama air base to ensure it is not used,” the source said.
Israel also said on Wednesday it targeted the T4 air base in Homs province, which it has repeatedly hit over the past week.
In the incident in southwestern Syria, the Israeli military said its forces were operating in the Tasil area, “confiscating weapons and destroying terrorist infrastructure” when several militants fired on them.
Residents of the Tasil area reached by phone said a group of armed locals were killed after confronting an Israeli army contingent that had arrived in the area to destroy a former Syrian army encampment.
The Israeli military said there were no casualties among its forces who “responded with fire and eliminated several armed terrorists from the ground and air.”
“The presence of weapons in southern Syria constitutes a threat to the State of Israel,” it said. “The IDF will not allow a military threat to exist in Syria and will act against it.”
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US Senate Confirms Mike Huckabee as Ambassador to Israel
Mike Huckabee looks on as Donald Trump reacts during a campaign event at the Drexelbrook Catering and Event Center, in Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania, US, Oct. 29, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
The US Senate on Wednesday backed former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee to be ambassador to Israel, installing a staunch pro-Israel conservative in the high-profile post amid war in Gaza and relations complicated by US tariffs.
The Senate backed Huckabee by 53 to 46, largely along party lines, with Republicans all supporting President Donald Trump’s nominee and every Democrat except Pennsylvania’s John Fetterman voting against him.
An evangelical Christian, Huckabee has been a vocal supporter of Israel throughout his political career and a longtime defender of Jewish settlements in the West Bank.
Critics said the former Republican presidential candidate was too partisan to represent the United States given the sensitivity of negotiations to end the war in Gaza and avoid broader regional war.
Huckabee’s supporters said he knew Israel well, having visited more than 100 times, and was well positioned to work closely with Trump to bring peace to a chaotic part of the world.
“We urgently need a qualified ambassador in the region, and I have no doubt Mike Huckabee is that person,” Republican Senator Jim Risch of Idaho, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said as he urged support for the nominee.
PRO-ISRAEL POLICIES
Trump has pursued strongly pro-Israel policies as president and his choice of Huckabee as ambassador signaled that they would continue.
Pro-Israel evangelicals are an important part of Trump’s base and voted heavily in favor of him in the Nov. 5 election.
“There’s no such thing as an occupation,” Huckabee said in a 2017 interview with CNN, in which he referred to the West Bank by its biblical names Judea and Samaria.
During his first term, Trump moved the US embassy to Jerusalem and sided with Israel on its claims over Palestinian territory in the West Bank. During his second, he has advocated taking a “hard stance” on Gaza, the Palestinian enclave for which he has proposed a US takeover.
The United States is Israel‘s closest ally and largest single trading partner. Netanyahu has visited Trump at the White House twice since Trump began his second term on January 20.
He was there this week, seeking to limit the sting of tariffs imposed on Israel as part of the Republican president’s sweeping tariff policy. Under the new policy, Israeli goods face a 17 percent US tariff, despite the two countries signing a free trade agreement 40 years ago.
Netanyahu pledged to eliminate Israel‘s trade surplus with the United States. But when asked if his administration planned to reduce tariffs on Israeli goods, Trump made no promises.
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Argentina Prosecutor Seeks Arrest Warrants for Iran’s Supreme Leader Over 1994 AMIA Bombing
People hold images of the victims of the 1994 bombing attack on the Argentine Israeli Mutual Association (AMIA) community center, marking the 25th anniversary of the atrocity in Buenos Aires. Photo: Reuters/Agustin Marcarian.
The lead prosecutor in the case of the 1994 bombing of the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association (AMIA) Jewish community center in Buenos Aires has petitioned Argentina’s federal court to issue national and international arrest warrants for Iran’s so-called “supreme leader,” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, over his alleged involvement in the deadly terrorist attack.
On Tuesday, Sebastián Basso — who succeeded former prosecutor Alberto Nisman after his murder in 2015 — requested that federal Judge Daniel Rafecas summon the Iranian leader for questioning and issue an international arrest warrant through Interpol.
He also ordered Argentina’s federal security forces to arrest Khamenei if he enters Argentine territory.
This latest legal move represents a significant shift from the country’s past approach in the case, in which the Iranian leader was treated as enjoying diplomatic immunity. Basso claimed that “this approach does not align with international law,” especially regarding crimes against humanity and acts of terrorism.
According to Argentinian local newspaper Clarin, the lead prosecutor argued that Khamenei was directly involved in planning the 1994 AMIA bombing in Buenos Aires — the deadliest terrorist attack in Argentina’s history, in which 85 people were killed and more than 300 wounded.
The Iranian leader “led the decision to carry out a bomb attack in Buenos Aires in July 1994 and issued executive order (fatwa) 39 to carry it out,” Basso wrote in the resolution submitted to the court.
Khamenei not only has the final word in Iranian state matters, according to Basso, but also “all of Iran’s military and foreign policies are under his direct supervision.”
“It is also undeniable that … Khamenei is the main supporter of groups with military capabilities, such as Hezbollah,” the lead prosecutor said, referring to the Lebanese terrorist group and Iran’s chief proxy force.
He explained that Khamenei appointed Hezbollah’s recently slain secretary-general, Hassan Nasrallah, as his representative in Lebanon.
In 2006, former prosecutor Nisman formally charged Iran for orchestrating the attack and Hezbollah for carrying it out. Nine years later, he accused former Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner of attempting to cover up the crime and block efforts to extradite the suspects behind the AMIA atrocity in return for Iranian oil.
The alleged cover-up was reportedly formalized through the memorandum of understanding signed in 2013 between Kirchner’s government and Iranian authorities, with the stated goal of cooperating to investigate the AMIA bombing.
In April 2024, Argentina’s second-highest court ruled that the 1994 attack in Buenos Aires was “organized, planned, financed, and executed under the direction of the authorities of the Islamic State of Iran, within the framework of Islamic Jihad.” The court also said that the bombing was carried out by Hezbollah terrorists responding to “a political and strategic design” by Iran.
The court additionally ruled that Iran had been responsible for the 1992 truck bombing of the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires, which killed 29 people.
Last year, Judge Rafecas requested Interpol to arrest four Lebanese citizens as part of the AMIA bombing investigation, citing “credible evidence that the four collaborated with Hezbollah’s military wing or acted as its operational agents.”
Since the terrorist attacks in 1992 and 1994, diplomatic relations between Buenos Aires and Tehran have remained strained, with this latest move and Argentina’s growing support for Israel under current President Javier Milei further intensifying tensions.
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Pro-Hamas Activists Call for ‘Jihad’ in Rally Outside Israeli Embassy in Berlin
Anti-Israel protesters march in Germany, March 26, 2025. Photo: Sebastian Willnow/dpa via Reuters Connect
Pro-Hamas activists chanted antisemitic slogans, called for “jihad,” and celebrated “armed struggle” against Israel at a demonstration outside the Israeli embassy in Berlin earlier this week.
The calls for violence came amid new revelations that the German capital has failed to spend millions of euros specifically allocated for combating antisemitism, which has reached record levels across Germany following the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel.
Approximately 220 Hamas sympathizers reportedly rallied in the Schmargendorf neighborhood, a southwestern area of Berlin, under the slogan “Freedom for Palestine! End the genocide in Gaza!”
According to German media, the protesters chanted, “The people want to declare jihad!” and “Anyone who wants to reclaim the country must carry a weapon,” among other statements calling for violence. A reporter for the German tabloid newspaper Bild shared video from the scene on social media.
„Hört auf, verbotene Parolen zu skandieren – sonst beende ich die Demo!“ Mit diesen Worten versucht die Veranstalterin der Pro-Palästina-Kundgebung vor der israelische Botschaft in Berlin ihre Leute zu stoppen. Doch die Berliner Polizei? Schaut weiter zu.#b0704 pic.twitter.com/NkSU7Xl7Dx
— Iman Sefati (@ISefati) April 7, 2025
According to local police, a 31-year-old man was arrested during the rally for using a prohibited slogan and is under investigation for displaying symbols of unconstitutional and terrorist organizations.
In front of the Israeli embassy in Berlin, one of the speakers leading the protest was reportedly Ahmad Tamim from Generation Islam, who allegedly said, “Our task is to liberate Palestine once again.”
German authorities have identified Generation Islam as part of the international Islamist group Hizb ut-Tahrir – an antisemitic organization that actively promotes and encourages terrorism and praised Hamas’s Oct. 7 atrocities in southern Israel. The group has been banned in Germany since 2003, as well as in several other countries, for advocating for the destruction of the State of Israel through militant jihad.
Offener Aufruf zum heiligen Krieg – mitten in Berlin?
„Das Volk will den Dschihad!“ – Islamisten-Parolen vor Israels Botschaft!
Was sich gestern vor der israelischen Botschaft abspielte, ist kaum zu fassen – und brandgefährlich:
Bei einer Pro-Palästina-Demo brüllten… pic.twitter.com/oDqC29J9Zt— Iman Sefati (@ISefati) April 8, 2025
The rally came after the German newspaper Der Tagesspiegel revealed last week that the Berlin Senate has done nothing with 3.5 million of the 11 million euros that the federal government allocated to the German capital to fight antisemitism in the wake of Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack.
The funds were reportedly not spent, despite a historic surge in antisemitic incidents, due to organizational and administrative issues — specifically the absence of any department dedicated to the fight against anti-Jewish hatred through which the money could flow.
Meanwhile, the 8.5 million euros that were actually spent are being called into question for alleged misappropriation, with critics charging the money went to organizations not equipped for or effective at combating antisemitism.
Germany has experienced a sharp spike in antisemitism since the Hamas atrocities of Oct. 7, amid the ensuing war in Gaza. In just the first six months of 2024, for example, the number of antisemitic incidents in Berlin surpassed the total for the entire previous year, setting a new record for the highest annual count, according to Germany’s Federal Association of Departments for Research and Information on Antisemitism (RIAS).
The figures compiled by RIAS were the highest count for a single year since the federally funded body began monitoring antisemitic incidents in 2015, showing the German capital averaged nearly eight anti-Jewish outrages a day from January to June last year.
According to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), police registered 5,154 antisemitic incidents in Germany in 2023, a 95 percent increase compared to the previous year.
Last week, German authorities issued deportation orders for three EU citizens and one US citizen living in Berlin over their participation in anti-Israel protests, stating that they “pose a threat to public order.”
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