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Iran's foreign ministry condemned Israel's incursions into Syria on Saturday as reports suggested Iran was mulling deploying ground forces to counter a potential US-led intervention in the country.Israeli jets struck an area near the International airport in Damascus on Thursday, reportedly an arms depot operated by the Lebanese Hezbollah militia."There was no doubt that the inroads were aimed at weakening Syria's legitimate government and in line with reinforcing Takfiri (supposedly apostate Muslim] terrorists who have moved closer to the annihilation and defeat in the battlegrounds day by day," Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Qassemi said, according to the Fars news agency.

The comments follow reports by the Tabnak news agency, which is affiliated to a former commander of the powerful Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), indicating that Iran has growing concerns about increasing US military activities on Jordan's northern border.The article said that Israel's strikes on Syria could be the beginning of a major offensive against the country by a coalition including Israel, the US and Arab states."There are increased activities in southern Syria that indicate preparations for an attack through Jordan and Israel and [with the help of] armed groups," it read.Another article in the same news agency said that Russian and Iranian military officials had informed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad that they stood ready to send ground forces to intervene in the country in case of such a situation.Journalist Asaad Hanna tweeted earlier this month that US forces had been positioned and were standing by on the southern Syrian border with Jordan special forces. Another report in the Al-Hayat outlet also indicated a joint force was preparing to enter southern Syria from Jordan, albeit ostensibly with the aim of combating the Islamic State.

Iran rallied to the defence of its ally in Syria following the crackdown on anti-government demonstrators in 2011.The IRGC has lost more than a thousand fighters in Syria, fighting against opposition forces backed by the US, Qatar, Turkey and Saudi Arabia.

(But according to an oft-cited Pew Poll, 33% of Democrats sympathize with Israel versus 31% who sympathize with Palestine, indicating this majority no longer exists among Democrats. And according to a recent Brookings poll, 60% of Democrats “now support imposing economic sanctions or more serious action” against Israel in reaction to Israeli settlement expansion.)

The Syrian Arab Army and allied forces’ latest campaign in predominantly ISIS-held areas east of Aleppo and in Deir Ez-Zor resulted in major casualties and setbacks for the insurgents.

On Saturday units of the Syrian Arab Army and allied forces re-established full control over 22 towns in the eastern countryside of Aleppo. The campaign there resulted according to Syrian military sources in the death of more than 1,200 insurgents.

Earlier, SAA unites and allied forces carried out a number of intensive operations against the ISIS positions in the southeastern countryside of Aleppo, establishing control over the northeastern and middle parts of al-Tweihina Mountains to the east of Khanaser-Athria axis in the southeastern side of Aleppo countryside. An unspecified number of the ISIS terrorists there were killed in the operations and their equipment and fortifications were destroyed. In Deir Ez-Zor army and air force units carried out bombardments and airstrikes against ISIS positions and movement axes in Talet Alloush, al-Thardeh roundabout, al-Makabbat, the Panorama area and the surrounding hills, Palmyra road, al-Rashdiyeh neighborhood and in the villages of al-Jenineh and Aiyyash in Deir Ezzor province. A military source reported that about 70 ISIS fighters had been killed there while 4 vehicles with machine-guns, plus a number of canons and a truck were destroyed.

Thousands of Israelis took to the streets of Tel Aviv calling for the resignation of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over corruption charges. The so-called ‘March of Shame’ attracted more than 10,000 people on Saturday, Ynet News reported. The protestors on Tel Aviv's Rothschild Boulevard chanted "Shame, shame, shame," "Bibi Netanyahu to Maasiyahu Prison," and "We will not give in until you give up."

Smaller anti-Netanyahu protests were organized in other locations in Israel as well, including Nahariya, Hadera, Afula, Netanya, Rishon LeZion, Modi'in, Jerusalem and Be'er Sheva.

Netanyahu has been questioned in two cases, with poilce suspecting the PM of received lavish gifts from businessmen and negotiating a deal for more favorable coverage with a newspaper owner.

The Israeli government has approved a plan setting aside $72 million to fighting the campaign to boycott the Jewish state. The plan, which would entail the largest monetary investment yet by Israel specifically toward combating the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign, was announced last week to cabinet ministers and approved as an executive order after none of them objected, the Ynet news site reported Friday.

It calls for setting up a not-for-profit organization whose board will be made up of government officials and donors from abroad, the report said. The board will oversee the first major “civil-society infrastructure servicing the State of Israel and the pro-Israel community in the fight against the de-legitimization of Israel,” the notice sent to ministers read. The $75 million budget will come partly from the government and partly from Jewish donors and communities abroad, the report said. It did not say when the new organization would become operational or even established formally.

While such activities today formally fall under the purview of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, privatizing them would allow for quicker and more flexible action unconstrained by government bureaucracy and legal limitations on third party services, that require tenders when carried out by the government, the announcement explained. The new organization will, however, be subject to review by the state.

arlier this month, tech giant Microsoft announced its solution to “protect” American elections from interference, which it has named “ElectionGuard.” The election technology is already set to be adopted by half of voting machine manufacturers and some state governments for the 2020 general election. Though it has been heavily promoted by the mainstream media in recent weeks, none of those reports have disclosed that ElectionGuard has several glaring conflicts of interest that greatly undermine its claim aimed at protecting U.S. democracy. In this investigation, MintPress will reveal how ElectionGuard was developed by companies with deep ties to the U.S. defense and intelligence communities and Israeli military intelligence, as well as the fact that it is far from clear that the technology would prevent foreign or domestic interference with, or the manipulation of, vote totals or other aspects of American election systems.