Trump, who has given the green light to all of Israel's offensive activity, will not be in the White House from next week • But the attack in Syria is a clarification of what:
The relatively unusual attack on the scale attributed yesterday (Wednesday) to the Syrian Air Force had two main recipients.
The first, Kinati - the militias operating in Syria on Iran's mission.
The second, Diplomatic - Joe Biden's incoming administration in Washington.
This is the fourth time in the last month that an attack on Syria has been attributed to Israel, with the current attack being the most complex and extensive of them all.
While the other three attacks were carried out in and around Damascus, this time the attack was hundreds of kilometers from Israeli territory.
This is a much more complex intelligence and operational challenge.
Based on various reports, the attacks in the Damascus sector are carried out by the Air Force from Lebanon and sometimes even from Israel.
But an attack deep inside Syria - on its border with Iraq - requires a relatively long flight, at night, over foreign countries, and it is likely that coordination with other forces operating in the region, especially the Americans who control airspace in this sector.
This may also be why unknown sources in Washington claimed yesterday that it was the United States that provided the intelligence for the attack. It is doubtful that Israel's intelligence in this sector, on this specific enemy, is much better than that of the Americans. , But that the Americans received an early report about it.
In fact, the intelligence supply works in the opposite axis.
Israel is the one that updates the Americans on almost everything related to Iran and its envoys in the region.
It seems that this was also the reason for the well-publicized meeting yesterday (in the evening at a famous Washington cafe) between Mossad chief Yossi Cohen and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
It took only a day for the fruits of this meeting to be seen: the accusing finger that Pompeo pointed at Iran, as sponsoring al-Qaeda and senior members of the organization.
The attack itself, which was relatively extensive, destroyed the logistical infrastructure of the militias in Deir a-Zor and al-Buchmal.
These are targets that have also been attacked in the past, although given the scope of the attack it seems that intelligence was gathered relatively early in order to accumulate as large an amount of assets as possible in one operation.
Reports coming from Syria about the extent of the victims of the attack, as well as their identities, can be questioned;
Past experience shows that these are usually Syrian citizens or mercenaries (Afghans, Pakistanis), and less so Iranians.
The activities of Iran and its envoys are concentrated on the Syrian-Iraqi border, assuming that Israel will be more complicated to attack there than in Damascus.
This is a limitation, but not a hindrance: the Air Force has proven on several occasions since the destruction of the Syrian nuclear reactor in 2007 that it has no large range (certainly in the northern arena), and intelligence has proven that there is no information in this sector that is almost completely opaque.
Recent attacks show that Tehran is not deterred by the intense activity against it.
Anyone who claims to be folding from Syria is lying on a weekly basis.
It may be more complicated for her than before, but she is determined to continue her attempts to establish herself in Syria, and to arm her emissaries in the region - led by Hezbollah.
For Israel, this means that offensive activity in Syria must continue in the future.
But from next week, the one who will sit in the White House will not be Trump - who gave Israel the green light for any activity, and rewarded it with a broad friendly umbrella of protection - but Joe Biden.
Although he is an old friend of Israel, he is a new president with whom relations have not yet been shaped, for better or worse, with an emphasis on the expected disagreements over his intention to return to the nuclear agreement with Iran.
In recent attacks, Israel has apparently sought to make it clear to him that there is nothing to talk about Syria: Israel will continue to operate there as in the past, knowing that anyone who does not thwart terrorism on the Syria-Iraq border will receive it later on the Syria-Israel border.
