General says Daesh wants to drag Israel into Syria war

“I actually think [Daesh] did want to harm us,” said Amos Yadlin, a former Israeli army general, adding, “What [Daesh] wanted was apparently to cause some kind of confrontation between us and the Syrians, who are putting immense pressure on them...”

Yadlin added that Daesh was taking advantage of recent attacks by Israel against the Syrian government positions and was trying to help escalate the situation between Israel and Syria. He said such an escalation could undermine Syria’s advances against the terrorists and help Daesh remain longer in south and east of Syria.

The claims by the Israeli general come against the backdrop of reports showing that Israel has helped anti-government terrorists in Syria since the very beginning of the war in the Arab country in 2011. Daesh Takfiri terrorists are generally believed to have been a main recipient of the Israeli assistance as many members of the group have been transferred for treatment from battle grounds in Syria’s part of the Golan Heights to Israel.

In its most recent show of sympathy for the adversary groups fighting the Syrian government, Israel sent around 100 buses to southern Syria earlier this week to evacuate members of the so-called White Helmets, a group which Damascus has designated as a terrorist organization. 

Israel also shot down a plane belonging to the Syrian army last week, claiming that it had entered the Israeli airspace from Syria. The plane was in the midst of an anti-militant operation and many believe Israeli downed it deliberately to help the terrorists escape from their hideouts.

Further in his remarks, Yadlin tried to calm down concerns about the failure of the Israeli air defense system to intercept the two rockets fired from Syria on Wednesday. He said Israel is not capable of stopping all missiles fired toward its position despite possessing some of the most modern missile defense systems in the world.

“Although Israel has a defense system for missiles and rockets among the best in the world, it cannot intercept anything in any place. This is an illusion,” he said.