Report: Israel Gives Syria Ultimatum

[patteeu]

The London-based Arabic language newspaper Al-Hayat reported Saturday that “Washington has information according to which Israel gave Damascus 72 hours to stop Hizbullah’s activity along the Lebanon-Israel border and bring about the release the two kidnapped IDF soldiers or it would launch an offensive with disastrous consequences.”

The report said “a senior Pentagon source warned that should the Arab world and international community fail in the efforts to convince
Syria to pressure Hizbullah into releasing the soldiers and halt the current escalation Israel may attack targets in the country.”

more... (http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3275886,00.html)

Update:

Responding to a report in a pan-Arab daily newspaper that Israel presented Damascus with an ultimatum, an Israel Defense Forces officer said Saturday that targeting Syria is currently not on Israel's agenda.

more... (http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/738315.html)

[Bowser]

This is going to get messy. Hindsight's a bitch, but it'slooking like Syria was the more appropriate target after Afghanastan now.

[patteeu]

This is going to get messy. Hindsight's a bitch, but it'slooking like Syria was the more appropriate target after Afghanastan now.

I don't think that's the way to look at it. Right now, we are between Iran and the rest of the middle east and we are Syria's next door neighbor.

[Rausch]

Looks like Israel's executing a plan they've had in place for a while now.

And I don't think Israel wants them to comply at this point...

[FringeNC]

This is going to get messy. Hindsight's a bitch, but it'slooking like Syria was the more appropriate target after Afghanastan now.

But now Syria is isolated. Iran can't enter the fray due to a massive presence of the USAF in between Iran and Israel.

[Boyceofsummer]

Back to Story - Help
Israel bombards Lebanon, dismisses planned force By Lin Noueihed
32 minutes ago



Israel bombarded Lebanon for a sixth day on Monday and dismissed as premature a U.N. proposal for an international peacekeeping force to help end the worst fighting across the Israeli-Lebanese border in more than 20 years.

Israeli warplanes hit coastal targets in the north and south, struck Beirut and damaged homes in the east belonging to members of the Hizbollah guerrilla group, which fired more rockets deep into the Jewish state.

An Israeli army spokesman said some soldiers crossed the border overnight to destroy Hizbollah positions and returned to Israel. "There was a very small incursion overnight to destroy a few Hizbollah positions... That has been done," he said.

Lebanese televisions stations showed burning debris falling over Beirut and said an Israeli plane had been shot down. Israel's Defense Minister Amir Peretz said no jet or helicopter had been lost but an unmanned drone may have been downed.

The fighting, the worst since Israel invaded Lebanon in 1982, was triggered when Hizbollah, which is backed by Syria and Iran and is part of the Lebanese government, seized two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid on northern Israel last week.

"I can't believe they are doing all this for two captives. This is just an excuse," said 21-year-old Ali Sharara who fled his home in south Beirut and has been sleeping out in the open with his brother in a city park for the last two nights.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Security Council members would start hammering out a detailed agreement on deploying a multilateral security force to south Lebanon.

But the United States gave only a guarded welcome to the proposal and Israel said it was too soon to talk of sending the force. "We're at the stage where we want to be sure that Hizbollah is not deployed at our northern border," government spokeswoman Miri Eisin said.

Army Radio quoted Israel's chief of staff as saying Israel planned to enforce a 1 km (0.5 mile) "security zone" to keep Hizbollah away from the border.

Israel's campaign has killed 181 people, all but 13 of them civilians, and wounded more than 500. It has also destroyed much of Lebanon's civilian infrastructure.

Twenty-four Israelis have been killed in the fighting, including 12 civilians hit in rocket attacks.

ISRAELI STRIKES

Israeli raids on Monday destroyed two army posts on the northern Lebanese coast, killing at least six Lebanese soldiers, and damaged the homes of Hizbollah officials in eastern Lebanon, killing 11 people in more than 60 strikes.

Seven more people died in strikes south of Beirut, including one on a coastal road linking it to the port city of Sidon.

Several thunderous blasts echoed over the capital and black smoke rose from a blazing fuel storage depot. Civilian installations, petrol stations and factories elsewhere were also hit, security sources said.

Beirut's stock market remained closed after falling 14 percent last week on the violence, which has also impacted world currency markets and pushed oil prices to record levels.

The commander-in-chief of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, among Hizbollah's closest allies, said Israel could end the conflict with Lebanon by agreeing to a prisoner swap proposed by the Lebanese guerrilla group.

Israel is demanding the disarming of Hizbollah in line with U.N. Security Council resolutions -- a task that is beyond the fragile Lebanese government.

Lebanon, just emerging from three decades of Syrian tutelage, fears that any attempt to tackle Hizbollah directly would re-ignite civil war and split its army.

Hizbollah launched rocket attacks on Haifa on Sunday, killing eight people in its deadliest strike on Israel.

The group said it fired dozens more rockets at Haifa on Monday. A three-storey building in the city collapsed, wounding two people, medics said. Israel decided to close the port in Haifa after the attacks, the transport ministry said.

France, the United States, Britain and a host of other nations scrambled to evacuate their citizens from Lebanon.

Israel's campaign in Lebanon followed the launch of its offensive in the Gaza Strip on June 28 to try to retrieve another captured soldier and halt Palestinian rocket fire.

Israeli air strikes on Monday flattened the eight-storey Palestinian Foreign Ministry building in Gaza City and gutted the offices of a Hamas-led force in the northern Gaza Strip.

In the occupied West Bank, Palestinian gunmen ambushed a group of Israeli troops, killing one and wounding six others in the old city of Nablus, witnesses and military sources said.

(Additional reporting by Jerusalem bureau, Nadim Ladki, Alaa Shahine and Laila Bassam)



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[Boyceofsummer]

Syria and or Iran raises the stakes (takes the bait). Then targets in Syria will be in the crosshairs.

[jiveturkey]

I wonder if we'll have to expand our presence in Iraq in the coming months. We'll want to insure that Isreal is successful in what ever it decides to do.

[Iowanian]

I think there is more to Israel's side of the story Boyce.....I think they're tired of the bullshit, of Muslim Extremists launching rockets at their cities....I think they're tired of other nations threatening to wipe them off the map....I think they're tired of Muslims in Backpacks blowing up their parlors. I think they're tired of giving up land in the name of peace, only to be told to give up more before the ink is dried.

I think, that 2 groups, kidnapping their soldiers is a very, very bad precident to allow.


As for Iran......If Syria and Israel tangle, it probably will get very messy. Iran has to decide what it wants to do. The only way they have to get to Israel, is through Iraq.....and I don't see them getting a leisurely, scenic and undisturbed route to Syria, with that many US divisions waving as they pass.


Lets be clear that syria and Iran have been actively participating in anti-US activities, and activites of the Secterian problems in Iraq since we got there. They are already established as non-friendly.

[mlyonsd]

Syria and or Iran raises the stakes (takes the bait). Then targets in Syria will be in the crosshairs.

If Syria or Iran for that matter are aiding Hezbollah in lobbing missiles into Israel the Israeli's have every right to target either one of them.

[Iowanian]

Iran has been funding insurgents and sending the EMF and shapecharges into Iraq, killing US soldiers since we go there. Iran and Syria both have dirty hands from the Beruit Marine barrack bombing.

Israel has every right to do whatever they think they need to do in the name of security IMO.

If Israel wants to send some fighters and bombers to Iran.....I don't care if the US refuels them in midflight.

[mlyonsd]

I think there is more to Israel's side of the story Boyce.....I think they're tired of the bullshit, of Muslim Extremists launching rockets at their cities....I think they're tired of other nations threatening to wipe them off the map....I think they're tired of Muslims in Backpacks blowing up their parlors. I think they're tired of giving up land in the name of peace, only to be told to give up more before the ink is dried.

I think, that 2 groups, kidnapping their soldiers is a very, very bad precident to allow.


As for Iran......If Syria and Israel tangle, it probably will get very messy. Iran has to decide what it wants to do. The only way they have to get to Israel, is through Iraq.....and I don't see them getting a leisurely, scenic and undisturbed route to Syria, with that many US divisions waving as they pass.

I can't think of another country in the world that would be expected to sit there and take missiles being launched at it like Israel is.

[Iowanian]

They've turned more cheeks than I would ever think should be required.

[DaKCMan AP]

It's not just about 2 soldiers. They came across the border INTO Israel and abducted soldiers. That in combination with everything else that has/had been going on (launching missles, suicide bombing, etc.).

You bet your ass if any country/terrorist organization came into the US and abducted our people we wouldn't respond lightly.

[Boyceofsummer]

They've turned more cheeks than I would ever think should be required.

If Israel were to pack-up tommorow and leave the same Arabs would then start killing each other. Look no further than Iraq. Thier culture is dominated by violence. Always has and always will.

[Iowanian]

I agree with that Boyce.

The thing is, Israel isn't going anywhere, so it appears they have 2 options....Let barbarians attack their citizens in their homeland without consequences.....Or punish them on a level that they no longer wish that kind of retribution.

I haven't talked with a whole lot of soldiers who have come back from the middle east with much respect for the culture.

[FringeNC]

"..Back in 1966, Israel recoiled from attacking Syria and instead raided Jordan, inadvertently setting off a concatenation of events culminating in war. Israel is once again refraining from an entanglement with Hezbollah’s Syrian sponsors, perhaps because it fears a clash with Iran. And just as Israel’s failure to punish the patron of terror in 1967 ultimately triggered a far greater crisis, so too today, by hesitating to retaliate against Syria, Israel risks turning what began as a border skirmish into a potentially more devastating confrontation. Israel may hammer Lebanon into submission and it may deal Hezbollah a crushing blow, but as long as Syria remains hors de combat there is no way that Israel can effect a permanent change in Lebanon’s political labyrinth and ensure an enduring ceasefire in the north. On the contrary, convinced that Israel is unwilling to confront them, the Syrians may continue to escalate tensions, pressing them toward the crisis point. The result could be an all-out war with Syria as well as Iran and severe political upheaval in Jordan, Egypt, and the Gulf.

The answer lies in delivering an unequivocal blow to Syrian ground forces deployed near the Lebanese border. By eliminating 500 Syrian tanks–tanks that Syrian President Bashar Al Assad needs to preserve his regime–Israel could signal its refusal to return to the status quo in Lebanon. Supporting Hezbollah carries a prohibitive price, the action would say. Of course, Syria could respond with missile attacks against Israeli cities, but given the dilapidated state of Syria’s army, the chances are greater that Assad will simply internalize the message. Presented with a choice between saving Hezbollah and staying alive, Syria’s dictator will probably choose the latter. And the message of Israel’s determination will also be received in Tehran.

Any course of military action carries risks, especially in the unpredictable Middle East. But if the past is any guide, and if the Six Day War presents a paradigm of an unwanted war that might have been averted with an early, well-placed strike at Syria, then Israel’s current strategy in Lebanon deserves to be rethought. If Syria escapes unscathed and Iran undeterred, Israel will remain insecure."

[patteeu]

Syria and or Iran raises the stakes (takes the bait). Then targets in Syria will be in the crosshairs.

Good.

[SBK]

I'm surprised none of the moonbats that fly around here have floated the theory that we went into Iraq at Israel's request, so that Israel could go into Syria without Iran getting involved.

[Rausch]

I'm surprised none of the moonbats that fly around here have floated the theory that we went into Iraq at Israel's request, so that Israel could go into Syria without Iran getting involved.

Funny how Bush is both Forest Gump and Lex Luthor at the same time... :hmmm:

[jiveturkey]

I'm surprised none of the moonbats that fly around here have floated the theory that we went into Iraq at Israel's request, so that Israel could go into Syria without Iran getting involved.One of them just did.

Hi Ohh!!!
:LOL:

[SBK]

One of them just did.

Hi Ohh!!!
:LOL:

I'm not quite a moonbat. RRNJ maybe, but not a moonbat.