Washington, DC - As reported by the BBC, Israel says it has hit dozens of targets in Syria belonging to the government and allied Iranian forces.
The Israeli military says the "wide-scale strikes" responded to rockets fired by an Iranian unit into Israel.
Syria says two civilians died and that Syrian air defenses shot down most of the missiles over Damascus. Other reports say the death toll was higher.
Local reports said loud explosions were heard in the capital. Pictures on social media showed a number of fires.
The Israeli military said it had intercepted four rockets fired from Syria towards northern Israel. It said the rockets did not hit the ground.
Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes in Syria since the civil war broke out in 2011.
Available to discuss this topic is David Rubin, former mayor of Shiloh, Israel, the ancient biblical land of Samaria.
Q&A:
1. Israel is saying it has been trying to thwart what it calls Iran's "military entrenchment" there and block shipments of Iranian weapons to Lebanon's Hezbollah movement. Do you believe this is a valid concern and why?
Answer: Yes. Hezbollah in Lebanon is pretty much just an extension of Iran whose stated goal is to wipe Israel off the map.
2. The latest operation was one of the broadest attacks to date, according to the BBC's Barbara Plett Usher in Jerusalem. Do you feel that President Trump’s pro-Israel stand is emboldening Israel to take greater measures against hostile factions in the region?
Answer: Yes. In 1978 President Jimmy Carter embraced a wrong-headed policy that did not recognize Judea and Samaria as being part of Israel. As counter-intuitive as that sounds since those are the two ancient lands of Israel, the notion stuck and people have been referring to our ancient land as ‘occupied territory’ or ‘The West Bank’ or ‘illegal land’ ever since. President Trump has righted that wrong.
3. The BBC also quotes a senior Israeli security official saying Israelis had decided on a powerful retaliatory strike to signal they were "changing the rules" - that even a small attack from Syria would trigger an extensive response, our correspondent reports. Do you agree with that?
Answer: I believe that is true and if Israel keeps increasing the counterstrikes, maybe Hezbollah, Iran, and Islamic Jihad might think twice before cowardly lobbing in hundreds of rockets into civilian areas of Israel.
4. The official statement from Israel Defense Forces (IDF) via Twitter said that the strikes targeted positions of Iran's Quds Force and Syria's armed forces. "During our strike of Iranian & Syrian terror targets, a Syrian air defense missile was fired despite clear warnings to refrain from such fire. As a result, a number of Syrian aerial defense batteries were destroyed.”
Answer: The IDF also said it held "the Syrian regime responsible for the actions that take place in Syrian territory and warn them against allowing further attacks against Israel". This is what appears to be an emerging trend showing enemies of Israel that the former patient turning of the other cheek may be over.
5. You and your son were attacked by terrorists leaving your son in critical condition leading to your founding Shiloh Israel Children’s Fund. Tell us about that and the good things your organization is doing in Israel.
6. You wrote the book “Trump and the Jews.” Tell us about that and where we may get a copy.
Answer: Go to Amazon.com and enter Trump and the Jews.
