As far as Israel is concerned, the end game of our actions in Syria is clear and has been defined a long time ago: Israel will not allow Iran to acquire a significant presence in Syria which would (a) bring Iranian troops to Israel's doorstep, (b) provide Iran with a land bridge connecting Iran to the Mediterranean, and (c) allow Iran to offer ground support to Hezbollah. Israel has vowed to take all necessary measures to stop Iran from gaining a strong foothold in Syria, and there is no doubt that this policy will continue to guide Israel's actions in the arena. Yesterday's events are therefore a watershed moment: Iran for the first time attacks Israel directly (putting aside for a moment the failed drone attack), and Israel targets multiple Iranian targets inside Syria with total impunity. Deterrence has probably been achieved, though in Iran's case it will never be total. Iran has a toolbox of possible weapons to use against Israel, including long-range missiles, proxy organizations such as Hezbollah and Hamas, and the ability to strike at Israeli diplomatic representations abroad, something Iran has done in the past. At the moment, though, there seems to be scarce desire on Iran's part to provoke Israel into an escalation, and last night's events will make that desire even scarcer. As a side note, I would add that the level of intelligence gathered by Israel in preparation for last night's attack was extremely high and serves as a further deterrent against future Iranian attacks from within Syrian territory.
With a collective resolve, the world can turn this crisis-like situation into an opportunity to address the funding gaps to avoid a 2012-like programmatic emergency, to minimize the immunity gaps by carrying forward the supplementary immunization activities (SIA) in endemic countries and raising the alarm to strengthen routine immunization (RI) everywhere, and to rigorously maintain the sensitivity of acute flaccid paralysis (AFP) surveillance. But the cardinal question is as follows: Do we need a Syria-like experience for a wake-up call, when 2013 was punctuated with several worrisome events, arguably much bigger in significance and gravity? Let us take a rundown through the events of a turbulent 2013. On December 31, 2012, the world missed the deadline to stop WPV transmission once again. Set in 1988, Global Polio Eradication Initiative's (GPEI) original deadline of 2000 had already been extended several times.(2) The new year started with fatal attacks on vaccinators by Islamic extremists, mainly in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Waziristan provinces of northwest and Sindh in south. On January 1, 2013, six female health workers and a male doctor were shot dead, and this tragic event had a history. Since mid 2012, over 30 health workers have been killed in Pakistan. Several security personnel on polio duty have also been shot dead or bombed.(3,4) Similar threats have been reported from Nigeria as well.
Shots From Syria Into Israel Sunday
Dozens in Syria managed to scale the border fence and cross into the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. Approximately 14 protesters from Lebanon and Syria were shot dead by the Israeli army, which accused Lebanese forces of being responsible for the Lebanese deaths.
Egyptian and Jordanian security forces prevented hundreds of protesters from trying to cross into Israeli-controlled territory. Egyptian police used riot dispersal methods against thousands of demonstrators in Alexandria and Cairo protesting outside the Israeli embassy and consulate.
In the deadliest incident, 10 people were killed when they marched from inside Lebanon toward the border with Israel, according to Lebanese security officials. The Israeli military said troops opened fire when rioters attempted to break through the fence into Israel. Israeli defense officials also suggested the Lebanese army, which fired in the air to disperse the protesters, might have been responsible for some of the deaths.
We may also include tools in our Services that allow you to share or publicly post content from our Services to your profile on a third party social network. You may choose to share information about your activities on the Service with such third party platforms and its users, including publishing your information about what content you may have viewed on our Services. If you visit a Service while logged into certain social media platforms, the social media platform may be able to identify your browser and associate the technical information provided by your web browser with other information that they have already collected about you, which may result in their ability to identify you. In addition, when you choose to share information about your activities on the Service with certain social media platforms, AP may send technical information about you to that platform as well as information about what content you are viewing.
2ff7e9595c