A squadron of Israeli Air Force F-16D fighter jets during a drill. (Ofer Zidon\/Flash90\/JTA<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
It was unclear from the reports whether the strike occurred on the Syrian or Lebanese side of the border. The Israel Defense Forces declined to comment on the reports.<\/p>\n
As the Syrian civil war persists and the regime of President Bashar Assad grows increasingly unstable, Israeli officials are concerned that Assad may transfer chemical weapons to his ally Hezbollah, the Lebanese terrorist group.<\/p>\n
Senior Israeli officials have been issuing warnings about such a transfer for months. On Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel must closely follow developments \u201cwith the deadly weapons in Syria, which is increasingly coming apart.\u201d<\/p>\n
Experts say that a transfer of chemical weapons to Hezbollah is possible, as Assad is slowly losing his grip on power and does not want the weapons to fall into his opponents\u2019 hands.<\/p>\n
Dany Shoham, an unconventional weapons expert at Bar-Ilan University\u2019s Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies, said reports of the strike might be credible.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wouldn\u2019t regard it as a surprise,\u201d Shoham told JTA. \u201cIsrael posed this possibility as a red line already.\u201d<\/p>\n
Syria is widely believed to possess two types of chemical weapons — the nerve agents sarin and VX, both of which target the nervous system and can cause paralysis or death.<\/p>\n
Even if they can acquire the weapons, experts say Hezbollah is unlikely to use them. In any case, they would be difficult for the terrorist group to weaponize. Chemical weapons must explode at the correct height to be effective:\u00a0too high, they evaporate into the air; too low and the ground absorbs the chemicals.<\/p>\n
More likely, Hezbollah would seek to use the weapons as a deterrent.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe question is what Hezbollah can do with them,\u201d said Yiftah Shapir, a director at Israel\u2019s Institute for National Security Studies. \u201cIt can\u2019t do anything with aerial bombs because it doesn\u2019t have planes.<\/p>\n
“We need to look at Hezbollah like an organized army. It\u2019s a political group with political missions and goals. If it uses them, it will use them like a state.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shapir added that any use of chemical weapons would draw widespread international condemnation and \u201cjustify any reaction\u201d from Israel.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re not more lethal than conventional weapons,\u201d Shapir said. \u201cIf you add the negative political effects that using chemical weapons has, it has worse effects. An army wouldn\u2019t be excited to use them because of tactical reasons.\u201d<\/p>\n
Israel\u2019s North has equipped itself with bomb shelters that can be sealed off in the event of chemical warfare, and an Iron Dome missile defense battery was moved this week near the northern city of Haifa.<\/p>\n
But Nissan Zeevi, a spokesman for the Home Front Defense Ministry, told JTA that no special preparations are happening near the border.<\/p>\n
Tel Aviv University Professor Eyal Zisser, in an interview with the Israeli news website\u00a0Walla, said that Syria is unlikely to retaliate against the alleged strike. He noted that Syria did not retaliate after Israel allegedly bombed its nuclear reactor in 2007, when Assad was in a more secure position than he is now.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis state is falling apart,\u201d Zisser said. \u201cHe\u2019ll just deal with it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Zisser added that the fall of Assad could be good for Israel, as it will weaken Hezbollah and its patron, Iran, though it will likely bring instability and possibly empower terrorist groups.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll have problems with elements of al-Qaida,\u201d Zisser said, \u201cbut in the long term it\u2019s more positive than negative.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/F16.jpg\" "\\"F-16s\\"")