On Saturday, Israel bombed a Syrian military installation outside Damascus called Jamraya in Mt Qassioun, about 15 kms (10 miles) east of the border with Lebanon, in the mountains near Damascus. In previous days, reported violations of Lebanese airspace had increased and it’s most likely Israel attacked while its planes were still in Lebanese airspace. The purported reason for the attack was to prevent movement of missiles to Hezbollah.
I find the reasons given by Israel to be purely for propaganda and insufficient to explain what drove the attacks. It’s an open secret in the region that Hezbollah has far more missiles In Lebanon right now that in 2006 and those that are stockpiled in Syria for Hezbollah’s use would not significantly change the situation. Hezbollah controls much of the cargo coming in and out of the airport in Beirut and most of its weapons shipments from Iran have been coming in via that route, particularly since the movement of equipment through Syria has become quite dangerous in the last few years as the conflict in Syria has raged. It is true that Syria stockpiles some rather advanced and accurate missiles for Hezbollah but Hezbollah already has inside Lebanon some of the Scud D missiles that were purportedly destroyed by the Israeli raid on Jamraya. Additionally, there is no evidence to suggest that Syria was thinking of moving those missiles into Hezbollah’s hands. Therefore, it is necessary to look at why the attacks occurred at this point in time.