Geo-political chess pieces ( sort of like deck chairs, but on the Titanic! ) are arranged on various levels, thus, some are highly visible and others – not so much. And when it comes to the always fiery Middle East, the games being played are earth shattering in nature. Doubly so for tiny Israel, barely the size of a postage stamp.

So while Assad’s killing machine has to be dealt with sooner or later, the fact of the matter is that its bloody outcome (for westerners) is between a Shia rock and a Sunni hard place. Or to put it more bluntly, between the choice of one Islamic devil over another. NOT very good options.

In a nutshell – for Israel in particular and for westerners in general – we are facing the choice of a stealth killer/onslaught on a Sunni slower burner, or a rapid Shia hell fire. The Islamist-in-Chief is working assiduously to implant the Muslim Brotherhood Mafia as the region’s hegemonic power. Hints: Mubarak – GO NOW – Benghazigate too.

Hence, his (alongside like-minded players) chips are heavily invested in Syria’s Muslim Brotherhood, poising them to grab the reins from Assad. And this blogger has repeatedly warned about the Brotherhood’s plans for the west – adinakutnicki.com/2012/07/25/the-muslim-mafia-aka-the-brotherhood-their-overarching-plan-what-it-means-for-americas-future-commentary-by-adina-kutnicki/. O M G!!

And Islamists are bloodthirsty, whatever their stripes – adinakutnicki.com/2012/08/31/islamists-whatever-their-stripes-are-bloodthirsty-assads-butchers-his-opponents-too-six-of-onehalf-dozen-of-another-addendum-toislam-blood-commentary-by-adina-kutnicki/ tells the gory tale.

And there is no need to remind the readers about Saudi Arabia’s Wahabbi thirst for terror, as the main actor (with the help of Iraq/Iran and others…they merge forces when killing westerners is the goal…but part company when their hegemony is being threatened) in 9/11/01. This is no small matter because they will come out on top too, once the dust settles.

Again, killing the west slowly/stealthily, or quickly via Shia added bellicosity are the options/outcomes. Make no mistake. The pre-ordained “cease/death fire” outcome in Gaza had everything to do with the above chess game and little to do with Israel’s ultimate security.

From Israel’s perspective the toppling of Hamas’s regime is a strategic imperative. However, outside players pulling its strings believe otherwise and couldn’t care less. Therefore, a degradation of Hamas’s firepower WAS allowed (how generous) in preparation for the real showdown. And in diplo-babble, FM Lieberman hinted as much –

“Lieberman added, “We had many misgivings and not all of them can be shared with the public. This was not a strategic operation. We explicitly said that there are three goals: stopping the rocket fire, restoring deterrence and destroying Hamas’s stockpiles of long-range Fajr missiles. We achieved all those goals.”

Asked why Israel did not utilize Operation Pillar of Defense to topple Hamas, something Lieberman himself has called to do in the past, he answered, “We placed the issue of Gaza in the coalition agreement because we knew it was a problem that needs to be dealt with. Our advantage is definitely in the Air Force. Our weak spot is our value for human life. Entering Gaza means fighting from house to house in Khan Yunis, Gaza and Rafiah.”

“Eradicating Hamas will not take two or three months, not even four months,” said Lieberman. “At this time it was not appropriate to make decisions like that, so there was no misleading of the public. We did our best.”

And if this American-Israeli finds herself in a charitable mood she would almost feel sorry for the leadership. But she isn’t. She admires, and relates to, statesmen and men with chests…pussycats…she throws to the curb.

www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/162431#.ULH_AYfFXcw

As to the encirclement of Syria and the immediate showdown in the region-

‘Middle East in high suspense for Gaza operation sequels’

DEBKAfile Exclusive Analysis November 25, 2012, 8:53 AM

“While Israel’s Pillar of Cloud was still in full spate over the Gaza Strip and southern Israel, the United States, Russia, Iran, Israel and Turkey were each respectively putting their next moves in place in a broader radius, DEBKAfile reports.

Saturday, Nov. 17, America acted to shore up its naval and Marine forces in the region. Washington gave its approval for NATO to post Patriot anti-missile batteries in Turkey opposite the Syrian border together with advanced AWACs electronic warning aircraft. Both weapons systems are to be manned by US military crews. Next, the USS Iwo JimaAmphibious Ready Group took up position opposite the Israeli and Syrian shores, adding another section to the menacing ring forming around Syria.

Moscow, Iran and Damascus, for their part, decided that the same coalition that laid a trail of disaster for its allies in the Gaza Strip, Hamas and Jihad Islami, were now about to pounce on Iran’s best friend, Bashar Assad, by moves to enforce protected asylums and no-fly zones in Syria.

In Tehran and Moscow, the Gaza offensive was not perceived as a lone Israeli operation but rather as the ground-breaker for a broader offensive by the US, Turkey and Qatar and the product of their combined intelligence brains rather than of military war planners.

Iran had been systematically building up the Gaza Strip as its “southern front” to fight enemies who attacked its nuclear facilities. The obliteration of a large portion of the military infrastructure Hamas and Jihad Islam had accumulated left this plan in shambles. Moscow and Tehran fully expect Washington to next turn the attention of the intelligence team which engineered the dashing of Iran’s hopes in Gaza to Syria and Hizballah, exploiting Tehran’s momentary weakness.

Moscow reacted by posting the Russian Black Sea Fleet’s naval task force opposition the Gaza, i.e. Israeli coast Friday, Nov. 11, purportedly to rescue distressed Russian citizens “should the Israeli-Palestinian fighting worsen in Gaza.”

Their arrival was announced Nov. 23, two days after a ceasefire went into effect in Gaza.

The Russian task force includes the missile cruiser Moskva, the destroyer Smetlivy, the large landing ships Novocherkassk and Saratov, the tugboat MB-304 and the large oil tankerIvan Bubnov.

DEBKAfile’s military sources say its real mission concerns forthcoming events in Syria rather than a worsening of hostilities in Gaza. Indeed it has been stationed facing the USS Iwo Jima which is in position opposite the Israeli and Syrian coasts.

As for Tehran, Saturday, Nov. 24, President Mahmud Ahmadinejad phoned the Hamas Prime Minister of the Gaza Strip, Ismail Haniya, and Jihad Islami leaders to assure them that Iran will continue to supply them with munitions as before and refill their depleted arsenals within weeks.

This assurance was widely publicized by Tehran as deterrence for the US-Egyptian-Israeli plan to shut down Iran’s arms smuggling routes through Sinai to the Gaza Strip. The promise by US President Barack Obama to send US troops to Sinai for this mission finally persuaded Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to suspend Israel’s operation in the Gaza Strip last Thursday, Nov. 21 after eight days and accept a ceasefire.

The week ahead holds three major events, DEBKAfile’s military sources report.
1.  Iran is not expected to let its Gaza debacle go by without response – probably by some act of military or terrorist violence. Israeli intelligence closely watched Iranian parliamentary speaker Ali Larijani putting his head together on how to go about  punishing Israel with Bashar Assad in Damascus on Friday, Nov. 23, and with Hizballah’s Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut the next day.
2.  A fresh war escalation is on the cards in Syria in response to the deployment of US-manned Patriots and AWACs on Turkey’s border with Syria. Syria may decide to vent its ire against Israel.
3.  Egypt’s pro-democracy, liberal and anti-Muslim Brotherhood forces are arrayed for a major battle against President Mohamed Morsi for his assumption of extraordinary powers. This contest has the potential for undoing the fragile ceasefire reached between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Part of the deal was for Morsi to personally monitor and arbitrate the implementation of the secret understandings for Gaza and Sinai that were negotiated between the US, Egypt and Israel in order to open the door to the ceasefire.”
www.debka.com/article/22560/Middle-East-in-high-suspense-for-Gaza-operation-sequels

Alas, Hamas must stay in place, as the Brotherhood Mafia ( with Barack HUSSEIN Obama at the forefront ) demands their survival. Hint: they are the forward-arm on Israel’s southern border; aimed/poised for its destruction. Nevertheless, Iran’s paymasters have been arming them to the teeth. Ahh…the twists and turns of the Islamic terror bazaar.

And this is exactly why the trio in Israel – Netanyahu, Barak, Lieberman – kept opining “all their objectives are met”, but they are merely pawns in the mischief makers’ chess board. At least, until they are forced to go for broke.