← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · Hilaire Belloc
Thread ID: 10317 | Posts: 3 | Started: 2003-10-07
2003-10-07 17:12 | User Profile
[url]http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=540&ncid=716&e=6&u=/ap/20031007/ap_on_re_mi_ea/israel_syria[/url]
Sharon: Israel Will Strike at Enemies
By RAMIT PLUSHNICK-MASTI, Associated Press Writer
JERUSALEM - Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon (news - web sites), in his first public comments since an Israeli airstrike against Syria, said Tuesday his nation would not hesitate to attack its enemies wherever they were.
Syria's president countered that the raid — targeting what Israel said was a Palestinian militant training camp — would only enhance his country's power in the Middle East.
The raid raised concern in Israel and the Arab world that the Palestinian conflict could widen into a regional crisis if Israel begins pursuing militants in neighboring nations. With tensions high after the strike, there was shooting and mortar fire overnight along the border between Israel and Lebanon, where Syria is the main power-broker.
Sharon's statement came two days after Israeli warplanes bombed a suspected Islamic Jihad training base outside the Syrian capital of Damascus in the first major Israeli attack on Syrian soil in three decades. That bombing was in retaliation for a Jihad suicide bombing Saturday that killed 19 people in a restaurant in Haifa.
"Israel will not be deterred from protecting its citizens and will strike its enemies in every place and in every way," Sharon said at a memorial service for Israeli soldiers killed during the 1973 Middle East war.
After the air raid, Israel accused Syria of harboring and funding Islamic Jihad and also named Iran as a key backer of the militant group.
However, Sharon also said he was open to peace overtures.
"We will not miss any openings or opportunities to reach an arrangement with our neighbors and comprehensive peace," he said. "Only with this combination can we be sure that this generation will see with its own eyes the end of this war and will reach the gates of peace."
President Bush (news - web sites) said Monday that Israel "has got a right to defend herself," although he also said he had cautioned Sharon to try to avoid escalating tensions in the region.
In violence on the Israeli-Lebanese border, a 4-year-old Lebanese boy was killed early Tuesday in a village, apparently after an anti-aircraft shell or mortar fired from within Lebanon toward Israel fell short.
Lebanese security officials and residents in Houla said Ali Yassin was killed and his twin brother wounded in the explosion. Israel's army said at least three mortar shells were shot from Lebanon toward northeastern Israel.
Hours earlier, Israeli Staff Sgt. David Solomonov, 21, who also held U.S. citizenship, was killed in a cross-border shooting. Solomonov, from the town of Kfar Saba, emigrated to Israel with his parents 13 years ago from Pennsylvania, according to the U.S. Consulate.
The Israeli army said shots were fired by a sniper of the Syrian-backed Hezbollah guerrilla group, sparking return fire from Israeli troops. Hezbollah denied any involvement in a fax to The Associated Press in Beirut.
Syrian President Bashar Assad denounced Sharon's administration as a "government of war" in remarks published Tuesday.
Assad said Syria's role in the region "is painful" to Sharon's government. The raid "was a failed Israeli attempt to undercut this role," he told the London-based newspaper Al-Hayat.
"We can, with full confidence, say that what happened will only make Syria's role more effective and influential in events in the region," he said.
Itamar Rabinovitch, a former Israeli ambassador to Washington and a former peace negotiator with Syria, wrote in the daily Yediot Ahronot that the raid signaled a sharp escalation in the conflict with Palestinians and questioned its wisdom.
"As of now, this was a solitary act — a sort of signal to Damascus and behind Damscus, to Tehran — that Israel is liable to turn the Israeli-Palestinian conflict into a regional crisis," Rabinovitch wrote. "But does Israel really want this? Is Israel willing to step up the battle with Syria?"
Israel's Vice Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Tuesday that the security Cabinet decided at a meeting on Aug. 19 — following a Hamas bus bombing that killed 23 people — to target an Islamic Jihad training camp near Damascus, but postponed the air raid for operational reasons.
After the Haifa suicide bombing Saturday, the army said it was possible to carry out the operation, and a group of Cabinet ministers approved the air raid, Olmert said.
Israeli warplanes bombed the training camp — which apparently has been abandoned for some time — early Sunday.
"We have no limitations regarding the targets and the goals so long as they are, in the end, connected to the terrorist acts," Olmert told Israel Radio.
Raanan Gissin, a Sharon aide, said Israel's security cabinet decided after the Aug. 19 bus bombing that "there would be no limitations, not even geographic, to get the leadership or the infrastructure of the terrorist groups."
The Israeli air raid came after two clear messages that Israel means business, Gissin said. The first message came shortly after the Iraq (news - web sites) war when Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites) gave Assad an Israeli demand that Damascus remove the militant groups operating in Syria, he said.
In August, Israeli warplanes flew over Assad's summer palace in Latakia, Gissin said. The warplanes reportedly flew so low that windows in the palace shattered.
Now, Israel wanted to send a message to both the militant groups and to Assad, Gissin said.
"We hope the Syrians will sober up and realize that what they are doing is endangering them," Gissin said. "Hopefully, Assad will get the message."
The head of Israel's northern command, Maj. Gen. Benny Gantz, warned Lebanon and Syria that a refusal to stop the Hezbollah activities would bring about Israeli retaliation.
"These actions are very dangerous for Lebanon and Syria... and can bring about a serious deterioration in the situation," said Gantz said.
Israel withdrew from a strip of territory in south Lebanon in May 2000 after an 18-year occupation of the area in an effort to prevent cross-border attacks.
2003-10-07 20:50 | User Profile
Jews claiming global jurisdiction. Nothing new there.
2003-10-08 04:54 | User Profile
Is this news to anyone? The bottom line is that these articles need to be spread far and wide. We all know that the mainstream media is not going to do it due to it's bond with Isreal. I frequent bodybuilding fourms and try to educate as many people as possible of the dangers of Israel. Feralnews.com and thetruthatlast.com have some great articles that can be used for reference.