Posted on 09/29/2006 5:14:18 PM PDT by blam
Syria threat over Golan puts Israel on war alert
By Harry de Quetteville in Jerusalem
(Filed: 30/09/2006)
Israel has gone on heightened alert over a possible war with Syria amid reports that President Bashar Assad may be considering military strikes to regain the Golan Heights.
A signpost points out that Damascus is a mere 60kms from the Golan Heights
For years Israeli military intelligence has down-played Syria's capacity to launch a meaningful attack against Israel, and the threat level has been kept "low".
But Israeli reports have revealed that the threat level had been raised after intelligence assessments that Damascus is "seriously examining" military action.
The raised threat level comes as Israel prepares for Monday's Day of Atonement, known as Yom Kippur, a solemn Jewish holiday when the entire country effectively shuts down as residents fast and seek forgiveness for sins.
It was on Yom Kippur in 1973 that Israel was caught by surprise as Syrian and Egyptian forces launched a joint attack and inflicted heavy losses before being repelled.
"The first two days of that war were huge defeats for Israel," said Prof Uri Bar-Joseph, an expert on the 1973 conflict. "All the intelligence analysts failed."
Israel is determined to make sure that it is not surprised again, flagging up Syrian military preparations and signals from President Assad that his country might be readying for war.
The Syrian leader said this week that he "wanted to make peace with Israel". But he warned that his "hopes for peace could change one day".
"And if this hope disappears, then war may really be the only solution," he added.
That mixed message has proved divisive in Israel, renewing debate about whether to stay tough, or engage with Syria and solve the decades-long dispute over the strategically important Golan Heights, which Israel first captured in the 1967 Six Day War. Jewish settlers now populate the territory, which is crucial to Israel as a buffer zone with Syria and as a vantage point over its hostile neighbour, as well as providing Israel with a large proportion of its water supply.
Senior Israeli politicians and commentators are split about whether the time is right to start negotiations which would lead to a peace deal between the countries.
Few doubt that such talks would end with Israel returning the occupied land.
In return, however, Israeli advocates of the handover say the deal would split Syria from Iran, and would constrain Hizbollah and Palestinian militant groups which have headquarters in Damascus.
The Speaker of the Israeli parliament, Dalia Itzik, is one of those pleading for talks to begin. "Syria is sending signals all the time and I am not sure that we have the luxury of wasting opportunities like those," she said. "Imagine a new alliance with Syria. It is possible. Should we miss it?"
But the prime minister, Ehud Olmert, has dismissed such calls. Mr Olmert, who is politically vulnerable after his much-criticised handling of this summer's war in Lebanon, is in no mood to make territorial concessions.
He fuelled tension this week by insisting that "the Golan Heights will remain in our hands forever".
"Ehud Olmert is not strong enough to make a deal right now," said Shlomo Brom, a former strategy chief for the Israeli army. He said Israel would have to give up the Golan Heights to satisfy Syria, "but Mr Olmert is overloaded with Palestinian problems".
Mr Olmert has threatened to dismiss any cabinet minister who suggests negotiations with Syria.
"Assad wants to use threats as leverage to build on Israel's failures in Lebanon," said Mr Brom. "But any sane observer understands that Syrian military forces cannot match Israel, mostly due to our air superiority."
•The United Nations confirmed yesterday that four peacekeepers killed in Lebanon in July were hit by a half-ton Israeli precision guided missile.
Paging Israeli news ping list
Can the chinless one really be that stupid?
I am sure the UN already has the ceasefire agreement resolution ready to go......btw, did Israel ever get their kidnapped soldiers returned? Thought not..
"(islam) loves to rattle their sword when islam perceives one to be weak. islam loves to rattle their sword when one isn't weak. islam simply loves to rattle their sword."
thats all you can do when you can no longer get hard
And just think: all of America's liberals think these sheetheads should have nuclear weapons. Ain't that just a lovely thought...
no I didn't, but all the islamics can
brings to mind the mindset of maddie not-so-bright.
looking for a maddie not-so-bright
Well, we need to stop treating Islamists with compassion; we need to stop treating their mosques as sacred (especially when they're firing at our troops from them); and we need to stop letting their leaders go when they "promise they'll be good" (hint: Moqtada al-Sadr). We need to stop going after the drone footsoldiers and start greasing the pro-terrorist Imams en masse.
Israel has been repeatedly attacked by agents, weapons, munitions, etc. from Syria.
Syria has been a transport highway for death in Israel.
It is time to pay Damascus a visit; mail returned, postage due!
Works for me!
We need to stop going after the drone footsoldiers and start greasing the pro-terrorist Imams en masse.
The best way to kill a snake is to take off its head. imams are the physical head of this snake. The spiritual head is Satan. "Engines of evil" defines their function. Keep the illiterate masses in a constant state of homicidal frenzy. Let's turn off the engines. The Problem is islam itself. islam must be destroyed. The choice is ours. It is Western Civilization vs "islamic culture".
US Affairs: Damascus be damned - The Jerusalem Post
(snip)
The current administration has a different agenda, driven by the global war on terrorism and the ongoing American military presence in Iraq. The first word that comes to its mind in relation to Syria is not peace. Bashar Assad's Syria is more commonly associated with terror, Hizbullah, the Hariri assassination and the Iraqi insurgency. Indeed, in the eyes of US policy-makers, Damascus has evolved from being a key to regional peace to constituting an obstacle to American interests.
According to diplomatic sources, the US sees Assad's peace talk as no more than a trick - an attempt to divert world attention from the real issues on the table and from the American demands to stop sponsoring terror and to close the porous border with Iraq. "The only thing the Syrians want is to get the heat of the Hariri issue off them," said one official. Another added that if Syria really wants negotiations with Israel and a rehabilitation of its relations with the US, it must first deal with the terror issue, which took center stage following the Lebanon war.
THE LAUNDRY list of complaints the US has against Syria is growing longer by the day. While the matter of allowing insurgents and terrorists into Iraq through the border was seen over the past three years as the main obstacle to US-Syrian relations, new issues have been attracting attention of late. The US now fears that Damascus will try to sabotage the peacekeeping mission of the newly formed international UN force in southern Lebanon, and that it will make the implementation of Security Council Resolution 1701 - which the US views as an important diplomatic achievement - impossible.
For the administration, the course is clear.
In an interview with The Wall Street Journal this week, Rice called on the international community to join the US in imposing sanctions on Syria. "I think as Syria continues to show its stripes and isolate itself from its Arab friends, that may be somewhat easier to do," Rice said, referring to the chances of wider international pressure on Syria to succeed. "We're going to have to look at tougher measures if Syria continues to be on the path that it's on."
yitbos
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