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2008-03-13 Israel-Palestine-Jordan
JP: In a cold war with Iran, can Syria become Israel's 'China card'?
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Posted by gorb 2008-03-13 06:28|| || Front Page|| [8 views ]  Top

#1 IMHO, the author is a highly educated, very intelligent, person who has nothing even approaching a slightest inkling of what the current worldwide conflict is all about---if he wasn't an Israeli, he could get a job with USDS (what is, do they hire Jews?).
Posted by g(r)omgoru 2008-03-13 08:40||   2008-03-13 08:40|| Front Page Top

#2 The Chinese were ideological rivals with a long common border & natural competitive tendencies & pretensions towards empire. The Syrians, on the other hand, have no common border with the Iranians; Alawism has no real missionary tendencies that I've ever heard of, and Syrian ambitions tend towards incorporating Lebanon into their polity, not, say, the greater Shia political ascendancy or anything like that. The situations are almost totally incommensurate.

There *is* no China option with the Syrians. They aren't China in this analogy, they're Yugoslavia, or Romania, or maybe Albania. You're more likely to find a China option with the Iranians, in playing them off against the Gulf Arabs. Which the Israelis have done, historically, before the Shia resurgence in the late Seventies.
Posted by Mitch H.">Mitch H.  2008-03-13 09:46|| http://blogfonte.blogspot.com/]">[http://blogfonte.blogspot.com/]  2008-03-13 09:46|| Front Page Top

#3 Another delluded individual...
Posted by Eohippus Hupomock2152 2008-03-13 09:50||   2008-03-13 09:50|| Front Page Top

#4 I think Israel has been playing the "China card" with the China, that is the PRC, for a while.

Transfer of defense technology and intel between Israel and the PRC, although still not very big, has been increasing year by year.

Where this ends up geopolitically is hazy. The commercial goals of the PRC are helped by reducing Islamist entities and preventing Iran from having WMD. The political goal of the PRC of "hurting America" is helped by increasing these same things.
Posted by mhw 2008-03-13 12:30||   2008-03-13 12:30|| Front Page Top

#5 The author talks about the price Israel would have to pay to Syria. No mention of what Syria would pay to Iran.
Posted by Grunter 2008-03-13 17:19||   2008-03-13 17:19|| Front Page Top

#6 RUSSIA + CHINA are proceeding wid their investment designs vv IRAN - THE RUSSO-IRANIAN ENERGY DEALS WILL REPORTEDLY LINK THE "ENERGY GRIDS" OF ONE WID THE OTHER. IIRC/IICC, it may come down to is that any US-Western attack agz Iranian energy targets will also be an attack agz Russ energy targets. SYRIA COMES INTO PLAY AS PER ITS OWN UNILATER ENERGY DEALS WID IRAN PROPER.
Posted by JosephMendiola 2008-03-13 23:07||   2008-03-13 23:07|| Front Page Top

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