Ehud Barak Quotes
Israel will continue to act proactively to prevent the transfer of heavy missiles or advanced air defense systems from Syria to Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, which, of course, carries the risk of a military showdown.
Barak, Ehud. My Country, My Life: Fighting for Israel, Searching for Peace. St. Martin's Press, 2018.
Syria and its Terrorist Lebanon Proxy Hezbollah were trying to control Lebanon. Syrian troops had been stationed in Lebanon at the request of Hezbollah, which had a narrow plurality in the parliament but did not control the Lebanese Army. Most Lebanese who were not Hezbollah supporters opposed their Islamic fundamentalist approach. They also resented Syrian troops occupying Lebanese soil and intimidating the politicians. After Tueni publicly blamed Syria, the Syrian leadership then instructed Hezbollah to assassinate Tueni which they did in 2005. It took another 5 years for the United Nations investigation found officially that it was Hezbollah operatives that were the assassins.
Assad was the autocratic ruler of Syria. In the second decade of the 21st century, a number of dissident groups started a rebellion. The Unied States and most of the EU countruies wanted to assist the rebels as Assad had been butchering his own people to put down the rebellion. Russia, in addition to having an allaince with Assad for a Navel Base in Syria, was very coincerned about the people replacing Assad if the revolution succeeded. The coalition of rebels was not at all a coalition and there was considerable fighting and hatred between them ISIS was one of the stringest groups and the Russians were worried that they might take over so they supported Assad and in 2016 actually intervened using Russian air power to support the Government troops. That turned the tide and teh rebellion was prevented from succeeding. The Russian leadership was distressed that the United States did not take their concerns seriouly enough and indeed after they were in teh fight, the United States had to deal with them about the fate of Syria, so it was a successful tactic.
Ehud Barak is an Israeli general and politician who served as the tenth Prime Minister from 1999 to 2001. He was leader of the Labor Party until January 2011. He previously held the posts of Minister of Defense and Deputy Prime Minister under Ehud Olmert and then in Benjamin Netanyahu's second government from 2007 to 2013, as he retired from politics at the end of the tenure, though he returned in June 2019 with the formation of a new party.
