The Path to World War III?
Risky Israeli behavior threatens everyone
The minimal
U.S. press coverage accorded to last Monday’s shooting down of a Russian
intelligence plane off the coast of Syria is, of course, a reflection
both of lack of interest and of Israel’s involvement in the incident. If
one had read the New York Times or the Washington Post on the morning
after the shoot-down or watched the morning network news it would have
been easy to miss the story altogether. The corporate media’s desire to
sustain established foreign policy narratives while also protecting
Israel at all costs is as much a feature of American television news as
are the once every five minutes commercials from big pharma urging the
public to take medications for diseases that no one has ever heard of.
Israel is, of course, claiming innocence,
that it was the Syrians who shot down the Russian aircraft while the
Israeli jets were legitimately targeting a Syrian army facility “from which weapons-manufacturing systems were supposed to be transferred to Iran and Hezbollah.” Seeking to undo some of the damage caused, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu quickly telephoned Russian President Vladimir Putin
to express his condolences. He also sent his air force chief to Russia
on Thursday to provide a detailed report on what had occurred from the
Israeli perspective.
But that story,
however it will be spun, is inevitably only part of the tale. The
narrative of what occurred is by now well established. The Russian
aircraft was returning to base after a mission over the Mediterranean
off the Syrian coast monitoring the activities of a French warship and
at least one British RAF plane. As a large and relatively slow propeller
driven aircraft on a routine intelligence gathering mission, the
Ilyushin 20 had no reason to conceal its presence. It was apparently
preparing to land at its airbase at Khmeimim in Syria when the incident
took place. It may or may not have had its transponder on, which would
signal to the Syrian air defenses that it was a “friendly.”
https://www.globalresearch.ca/the-path-to-world-war-iii/5655134
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