◼ Drudge headlines:
Huge Explosions Rock Capital Damascus...
Online Video Footage Claims to Show Overnight Rocket Strike...
Obama Aide: 'If Assad Drops Sarin On Own People, What's That Got To Do With Us?'
SYRIA WARNS: 'Opens door to all possibilities'...
Stations Missile Batteries Aimed at Israel...
Israel Deploys Iron Dome...
◼ Israeli jets bombed Syria on Sunday, rocking Damascus for hours and sending pillars of flame into the night sky in what a Western source called a new strike on Iranian missiles bound for Lebanon's Hezbollah. - Reuters
CNN quoted Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal al-Mekdad calling Sunday's attack a "declaration of war", and the Iranian foreign minister urged countries to resist Israel. But a senior Iranian commander also said Syria was strong enough to defend itself without Tehran's help - though he also offered training....
Hezbollah in Lebanon declined immediate comment. Iran denied that the attack was on armaments bound for Lebanon.
Israel has long sought to block Hezbollah's land, sea and air transport from Iran and frets such new missiles could give the Shi'ite militants, who share in Lebanon's government, the ability to strike its Tel Aviv conurbation with some accuracy.
Netanyahu's colleague, Tzachi Hanegbi, noted Obama's reluctant to heed calls for U.S. military backing for the rebels despite Assad's forces alleged use of poison gas.
Given the confusion among world powers, he added, Israel was only trying to protect its own interests and saw little to be gained by trying to influence the outcome of Syria's civil war.
"The world is helplessly looking at events in Syria," he told Army Radio. "That is why, as in the past, we are left with our own interests, protecting them with determination - and without getting too involved."
