Israel shoots down Syrian jet as Assad forces reach Golan Heights | France24 |

Israel shot down a Syrian fighter jet it said had breached its airspace, as Syrian forces reached the Golan Heights frontier for the first time in seven years.

The Israeli military said it monitored the advance of the Syrian Sukhoi fighter jet and shot it down with a pair of Patriot missiles after it penetrated Israeli airspace by about two kilometers (1.2 miles).

Syrian forces have been battling rebels and Islamic State militants at the frontier with Israel in recent weeks. Tuesday marked the first time government forces reached the border fence with the UN's Disengagement Observer Force at the edge of the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

IDF shoots down Syrian fighter jet with Patriot missiles | Ynet News Israel |

The plane apparently crashed inside Syria, with Sky News Arabic reporting it went down in the Yarmouk area.

"It was shot down and it crashed," IDF spokesman Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus told reporters. "We do not have any information so far about the pilots. I do not know of any reports of parachutes being spotted, and we do not know if any pilots have been retrieved."

He confirmed that the plane was Syrian, not Russian. "The only thing we know about the aircraft is that it crashed, most likely in the southern part of the Syrian Golan Heights," he said.

A Syrian military official told the state news agency SANA that "The Israeli enemy confirms its support for the armed terrorist groups and targets one of our warplanes, which was striking their groups in the area of Saida on the edge of the Yarmouk Valley in Syrian airspace."

The source told Russian news agency Sputnik the plane did not infiltrate Israel and was downed over Syrian territory.

As a result of the jet's infiltration, rocket alert sirens blared through the Golan Heights shortly after 1:30pm in the Golan Regional Council, in the Jordan Valley and in the city of Katzrin.

Syrian forces have been battling rebels and Islamic State militants at the frontier with Israel in recent weeks.

Amnesia and Gaza Genocide

Syrian government lambasts evacuation of White Helmets as 'criminal' | France24 |

The Syrian government on Monday condemned a multilateral operation to evacuate hundreds of rescue workers from the war-torn country as a "criminal process" intended to de-stabilise Syria.

Syrian authorities have long described the Civil Defense search-and-rescue group, which are popularly known as the White Helmets, as a terror organisation.

The group rose to prominence as it filmed its operations to rescue civilians from Syrian government airstrikes in the country's brutal civil war. The government has said the group stages videos. Damascus's ally Russia has accused the group of staging chemical weapons attacks on civilians and blaming them on the government, a charge that has never been proven.

OPCW issues fact-finding mission reports on chemical weapons use allegations in Douma, Syria in 2018 and in Al-Hamadaniya and Karm Al-Tarrab in 2016. [July 6, 2018]

'Smuggling operation'

Syria's foreign ministry called it a "smuggling operation" that was evidence of a Western conspiracy to overthrow the government. The White Helmets have financial backing from the US, Britain, and other nations.

What I told @France24_en on #WhiteHelmets evacuation from #Syria through #Israel: Easy win for Western countries who have been severely criticized for not doing enough to ease suffering of Syrians and end conflict. Embarrassment for #Russia and Syria but expect no retaliation. (_link)

— Jasmine El-Gamal (@jasmineelgamal) July 23, 2018

Just briefly listening to the interview and hearing the talking points of Jasmine El-Gamal I wondered who this FU lady was.

I wasn't disappointed reading he twitter account and a brief history of her involvement with the Iraq Invasion of 2003, served in the Pentagon and is now employed by the Atlantic Council ... one FU young lady ... unbelievable but that is how the American war narrative is forced/propagated onto the air waves even in a digital era.

○ What I Saw In Iraq Isn't Captured In the `Debate' Back Home | TPM - June 2015 |
○ Nonresident Senior Fellow, Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security | Atlantic Council |
○ CNAS - Jasmine El-Gamal is Country Director for Syria and Lebanon

Before joining OSD, Ms. El-Gamal was a research fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP), where she focused on political reform and democracy in the Middle East.

The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a spin-off the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, is an influential beltway think tank whose members have advocated a host of hawkish, "pro-Israel" policies over the years. It is considered a core member of the "Israel lobby," a constellation of policy and advocacy groups devoted to pushing an Israel-centric U.S. agenda in the Middle East.

About the OPCW findings and the Douma attack, see my earlier diary ...

○ British Media and the Headline OPCW Report

Amnesia and Gaza Genocide

The reportage on this is fascinating to me. I'm watching in real-time concerted rehabilitation by the anglophone press of "civilian defense workers," formerly "humanitarian relief," formerly "emergency response" teams operating in ISIS, formerly "moderate rebels," controlled territories into émigrés (not migrants).

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

IS leaves Syria Druze reeling from heaviest losses of war
Sweida, unsung "suburb" of Daraa

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

Violence as 600 migrants storm Morocco-Spain border fence
 Ceuta and Melilla, colonial containment problems

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.