In August, al Nusra Front jihadists took control of Syria’s side of the border crossing with Israel and kidnapped over 40 United Nations peacekeepers — who have since been released.
But al Nusra Front, an al Qaeda-affiliate, isn’t Israel’s only threat from Syria. President Bashar al-Assad’s military, in a possible effort to bait Israel into its civil war to shore up Arab sympathies, has been lobbing mortars across the border. Just a few weeks ago, the Israeli military shot down a Syrian plane flying over the Golan Heights — the first time it has done so since the 1980s.
Videos by VICE
In this excerpt, VICE News correspondent Simon Ostrovsky visits the Ziv Medical Center in Safed, Israel, which is unique for its proximity to the international borders with Lebanon and Syria, and for treating victims of hostilities and soldiers injured on both sides of the border.
Watch the full length “The War Next Door”
Watch the extra scene “Bird-Watching in a War Zone”
Read “The Explosive End of Israel’s ‘Quietest Border’”
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This painting, showing North Korean soldiers celebrating with their Russian comrades, was displayed at an exhibition in Moscow last autumn. Jointly organized by the North Korean and Russian ministries of culture, the exhibition was titled Art Exhibition of the DPRK: The Country of Great People and held at the All-Russian Museum of Decorative Arts to mark the 77th anniversary of the founding of the DPRK. (Credit: In the Same Trench by Kim Chang Yung.) -
Photo by Tim Mosenfelder/WireImage -
Pictures by Slop Shop and Third World Elite -
