Israel would be very happy to see Syria destroyed: Analyst

Tue Jun 24, 2014

Press TV has interviewed Michael Prysner to discuss crimes committed by the Israeli regime in Tel Aviv and its key ally in Washington.

What follows is a rough transcription of that interview:

Press TV: Mr. Prysner, before we hear your side, or your view on this, I would just like to refer you to a 2012 Brookings Institution’s report that said and I am quoting here, “Israel could posture forces on or near the Golan Heights and, in so doing, might divert regime forces from suppressing the opposition. This posture may conjure fears in the Assad regime of a multi-front war, particularly if Turkey is willing to do the same on its border and if the Syrian opposition is being fed a steady diet of arms and training.” Now, this policy, it looks like in full operation, do you see similarities and do you think this is what the Israeli presence and the Israeli attacks in the Golan Heights are about?

Prysner: Well, our other guest said that Israel doesn’t want to be involved in the conflict in Syria, but this is not the first time that Israel has bombed Syria, in favor of those who are fighting the government there. I think in this situation, retaliation is a motivation. Someone in Israel was killed and so the Israeli government says, “We have to kill somebody; we have to kill anybody in retaliation for it.” So, those Syrian soldiers who were killed were the ones that were the deaths that Israel chose to be in retaliation.

But there is more to this too. Israel would be very, very happy to see a Syria destroyed, a Syria shredded, a Syria thrown further into chaos and so of course the bombings are also in support of that, in support of Syria being destroyed as a country, which is in Israel’s interest.

And then if this was something carried out with consultation with the United States, this is precisely the reason that Israel receives so many billions and billions of dollars of US taxpayer money, is to play this role in the Middle East. To be this attack dog on the leash of the United States, to act in its interests when the United States does not want to be openly carrying out airstrikes, they have Israel, a loyal client, to act in its interests for them.

Press TV: I’d like to hear your response to that first.

Prysner: Well, first that democratic uprising in Syria you’re talking about. You’re talking about the many thousands of foreign fighters who are carrying out terrorist attacks on civilians all over the country. You are talking about the region being on fire, maybe assuming to Iraq right now. Many of those forces who are fighting and creating the chaos in Iraq right now, are those fighters being supported right now, are those types of airstrikes in Syria facilitating there military victories or attempted military victories in Syria?

To say that Israel wants peace in the region, I mean look at what Israel is doing right now? Carrying out raids on homes of innocent people, gunning down civilians, mass arresting people… If Israel was really worried about protecting its civilians within its borders, it wouldn’t be taking out these types of actions to further stoke the flames in Syria, which is precisely what it is doing, with these airstrikes.

Press TV: Mr. Richard Millet is telling us that Israel has not violated international law and second of all, he says that it is Iran that is creating all this instability in the region. Iran is to blame here. Your response to that.

Prysner: I would say that those to blame for the mass amounts of violence in the region would be those who are funding and supporting the funnel of weapons and support into the groups that are creating the chaos in the region. And this is the United States and its allies, Saudi Arabia and others. This is responsible for the long, long war that has been going on in Syria now.

Israel is absolutely violating the international law. The international community itself admits that Israel is violating international law with its illegal settlements, its human rights violations and treatment of prisoners. The fact that you can be arrested in an occupied territory and brought without trial into an Israeli jail… that is a violation of international law. And you know, you talk about and you have all this concern for these three Israeli teenagers that are missing, in fact there is no evidence that they were kidnapped by Hamas or kidnapped by anybody, but three missing Israeli teenagers are… What about the 70 times more than that, Israeli jails?

What about the 210 Palestinian minors under the age of 18 who have been kidnapped by Israel and kept in Israeli jails under the most deplorable conditions, who are tortured, who are denied sleep, who are denied food, who are denied all the basic necessities of life. You know, the Israeli politicians right now, you know in a cynical way, want to use these three Israeli youths, something that the whole world needs to rising up and crying about, but you have 70 times more than that of young Palestinians, of Palestinians children teenagers who have been detained for quite a bit longer and knowingly, under really horrific torture-like conditions.

Press TV: Mr. Prysner, let’s hear your reasons for saying that Israel is actually benefiting from a breakup of Syria and civil war in Syria, or rather war on Syria by external factors.

Prysner: Israel has a very congruent interest with the United States. They don’t have the exact same interests, of course, Israel wants land, it wants all the land it is currently, illegally annexing from the Palestinians, because it really requires the direct mass support of the United States government and the billions and billions of dollars it uses to make Israel able to exist at all and able to fund that massive military power.

US interests in the region are carried out by the Israeli government and the US mission in the region, throughout the entire world, and right now in particular in the Middle East, is to overthrow all of the independent governments that broke themselves from colonial and imperialist domination over the decades.

Syria is one of those countries. Iraq was one of those countries. Iran is one of those countries. Any country that has stood up and said, “We will not follow dictates from Washington. We will not follow the dictates of the US empire,” they are targeted for destruction.

Syria is one of those countries that is independent of US imperialism and the destruction of Syria and the destruction of the Syrian state absolutely is in the interest of the United States and its allies, in particular Israel, because it is part of the Western domination of the entire region.

Press TV: Tell us, is this a problem of democracy now in Syria? We know an election was held there. We know that President Bashar al-Assad did win that election. We also know that not everyone managed to take part, but is this about democracy now?

Prysner: Israel and the United States do not care about democracy whatsoever and that has been proven in who they ally within the region and who they will not ally within the region. You know monarch-type dictatorships like in Saudi Arabia and Qatar are some of the closest allies of Western imperialism, absolutely not democracies at all, but countries with internationally-monitored elections like in Iran and like this election in Syria, which was monitored by observers. They don’t care actually who is in power, or by means to get in power. They care about whether or not they follow along with the dictates of the West and if you don’t, you are targeted for destruction, you are targeted for bombing, whether it’s US bombs or Israeli bombs.

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